Police admit ‘by the grace of God’ after mass shooting suspect killed after extended chase

Authorities said a man suspected of last month’s mass shooting in central Florida was fatally shot by a police officer on Monday after a long chase and carjacking.

The car, driven by 21-year-old Alex Green, ended up crashing into a business in Winter Haven. It’s near Lakeland, where 11 people were injured in the Jan. 30 shooting, Lakeland Police Chief Sammy Taylor said.

Several people were shot dead, two of them in critical condition, in downtown Lakeland on Monday afternoon.

— Ledger (@theledger) January 31, 2023

“We are very confident that he was indeed involved; to what extent we don’t know yet,” Taylor said.

Taylor said detectives were hoping to call Greene on an outstanding burglary warrant to talk to him about the Jan. 30 shooting in an area near downtown Lakeland, about 30 miles east of Tampa.

While investigators from the Lakeland Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement were on the lookout, Green got into a pickup truck and began to drive away, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at the time of the incident. press conference on Monday.

The Lakeland police gave chase along a busy road.

Police Captain Eric Harper was driving an unmarked car and trying to stop Greene “so we don’t have this chase on a very busy road,” Judd said.

He performed a successful PIT maneuver and Green got out of the car and started running into traffic.

“Why he and the captain didn’t get hit by a car is just the grace of God because there was traffic all over the place,” Judd said.

When Green realized he couldn’t leave, he ran to the restaurant where the woman was standing outside her car with the doors open, Judd said. The woman saw Green, slammed the passenger door and tried to close the door on the driver’s side.

According to Judd, Green pushed the woman away and got into the car.

Harper walked up with a gun at the ready, yelling at Green to stop and raise his hands, police said in a news release Tuesday.

“Captain Harper also loudly referred to himself as a police officer,” the report said.

“The suspect leaves in his car and drives to Captain Harper, who fires six shots,” Judd said. “The car continues down the road, passes through flower beds and crashes into a building.”

Law enforcement officers pulled Green out of the car and began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“No one else was hurt during the chase, for which we are all grateful,” Judd said.

A “multi-jurisdictional incident” that took place on Havendale Boulevard. closed most of that road earlier this afternoon.

— Ledger (@theledger) February 6, 2023

According to Judd, Green had 10 previous felony charges dating back to 2013, including running away to evade law enforcement, battery of a law enforcement officer, possession of a weapon, and resisting arrest. He had an outstanding burglary warrant and conspiracy to commit burglary.

According to a press release sent out on Tuesday, during a search of the car Green was riding in when he initially ran from cops, investigators found 28 grams of cocaine, marijuana, a Glock .357 handgun and $2,813 in cash. Green had another $5,833 in cash.

The shooting is being investigated by the Regional Fatalities Task Force.

Two people were seriously injured in the January 30 shooting, while the injuries of the remaining eight victims were not considered life-threatening. According to police, the victims were men between the ages of 20 and 35.

A car drove through the area that day and the suspects opened fire from all four windows of the car, police said. Officials did not provide details about the other suspects in the shooting.

Officials said they consider the shooting to be a “targeted attack”.

The Western Journal reviewed this Associated Press article and may have revised it prior to publication to meet our editorial standards.