Say hello to Alexander Kade Lanier, 26, and while you’re at it, you can also say good-bye to him, because his lengthy criminal career recently came to a permanent end, thanks to Alabama law enforcement.
Lanier was from South Carolina, where last year, he escaped custody:
A man escaped police custody Wednesday afternoon [Oct. 27] while being treated at a Greenwood hospital, according to police.
Alexander Kade Lanier was being treated Wednesday at Self Regional Medical Center after he was arrested by Greenwood police in connection with a burglary and domestic violence investigation from Tuesday night, Greenwood Police Department Public Information Officer Jonathan Link said.
At about 4:40 p.m. Tuesday, Lanier eluded police, who minutes later discovered he was no longer in his hospital room, Link said. He did not have enough details to say how Lanier escaped police custody or surveillance, but officers have been searching near Self since then to find him.
“I can’t think of the last time we had somebody escape our custody like this, but it’s very unfortunate,” Police Chief T.J. Chaudoin said. “There’s a lot of questions to be asked like why he wasn’t in handcuffs, why he wasn’t in leg irons. There’s several questions that have to be asked to figure out why he wasn’t restrained.”
Chaudoin said Lanier was being treated at the hospital after telling officers he had consumed an illegal substance. Hospital staff members were monitoring him after treatment, and Chaudoin said one sworn officer was assigned to watch Lanier when he escaped. He said an investigation is underway into how Lanier escaped and whether department policy was followed.
Lanier was last seen wearing a red hoodie and gray shorts. Chaudoin said after Lanier’s escape, he stole a vehicle from someone he knew who lived on Woodrow Avenue.
More details of the arrest in that case:
Lanier was arrested Tuesday night in connection with a burglary case. Police went at about 8:45 p.m. Tuesday to a Stanley Avenue apartment, where a woman said a man had forced his way into the apartment.
The woman told officers she used to be in a relationship with the man, but he recently tried to contact her after she blocked him on social media and on her phone, a report said. He came to the apartment she was staying at and began to beat on the door. When she told him to leave, he broke the door down and started to argue with her.
The woman tried to calm him down so he would not flee before police arrived, and when officers came he had locked himself in the bathroom, the report said. He came out when police commanded him to, and told police he had consumed a bag with a dozen pills in it.
Was Lanier able to escape because he was a criminal mastermind, or did this have more to do with a particularly dumb cop? Readers can decide for themselves, but a few days later, he was caught in Alabama:
The Pell City Police Department arrested a man Thursday who was wanted as a fugitive from justice out of South Carolina.
Pell City Police Chief Paul Irwin said Alexander Lanier, 26, of Greenwood, S.C., after a chase that spanned several miles of Interstate 20 and ended in Leeds.
The chief said Lanier had previously escaped from a correctional facility in South Carolina after he had been convicted of burglary while armed.
He said at 4:54 p.m. Thursday, St. Clair County advised the Pell City Police Department of a 2006 Honda Pilot driven by Lanier headed westbound on I-20 that was suspected of leaving the scene of an accident in Coldwater.
Irwin said officer Manuel Diaz spotted the vehicle near I-20 exit 158 and began pursuit. Diaz was later joined by other officers and deputies from St. Clair County. The chief said the pursuit continued until the Leeds exit where the Leeds Police Department was deploying a spike strip. He said Lanier avoided the strip but lost control of the vehicle which came to rest in a nearby ditch.
Irwin said Lanier was arrested after the chase without incident, but was transported to the hospital because of injuries sustained in the crash.
Jail records show Lanier was booked into the St. Cir County Jail in Asheville Sunday afternoon. He is being held without bond on charges of two counts of buying or receiving stolen property, reckless endangerment, fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement and a charge as a fugitive from justice.
Now, you might think that would be the end of it. He had already escaped custody in South Carolina, become an interstate fugitive and led police on a pursuit in a stolen car. Lock him up and throw away the key, particularly given the fact that he had originally been arrested for terrorizing an ex-girlfriend. I was under the impression that violence against women was a crime category taken seriously by our criminal justice system, but perhaps I was mistaken. Also, I was generally under the impression that progressive soft-on-crime leniency hadn’t spread as far as St. Clair County, Alabama — which, last time I checked, was a redneck stronghold where Donald Trump got 81% of the vote — and yet, in this too I was mistaken, because a judge there sent Lanier to a drug-rehab facility. And of course, the career criminal just waltzed right out of there, and went on a crime spree that ended shortly after he decided to carjack somebody at Waffle House, in Oxford, Alabama.
Let me tell you folks, I went to college at Jacksonville State University, just up the road from Oxford, a place I spent a fair amount of time (although on the advice of Bert the Samoan Lawyer, I’ll invoke my right to remain silent as to what I was doing there, and as to exact dates, well, I’m sure I’ve got an alibi). But the thing is, Oxford is nearly as redneck as St. Clair County, if not indeed more so. It was the site of a rather notorious incident during the civil rights era — the locals didn’t take kindly to the “Freedom Riders” passing through — and Oxford is just not the kind of place where a fugitive on a crime spree can expect lenient treatment. Hell, you try to carjack somebody there, and they’re likely to pull out their own gun and shoot you dead. And dear God, a Waffle House? You’re playing Russian roulette trying to carjack somebody at a Waffle House in a redneck town like Oxford. I think we can discard the idea that Alexander Kade Lanier was a criminal mastermind:
Oxford Police Chief Bill Partridge released the name of the man killed in an officer-involved shooting in Oxford early Monday morning.
During a news conference Monday afternoon, Partridge said Alexander Kade Lanier, 26, of Louisiana, had a 48-page rap sheet. Chief Partridge said he had prior arrests for felony assault, escapes and other charges. Partridge said, “This individual shouldn’t be walking our streets.”
The chief said at 12:11 a.m. an Oxford Police Officer was doing a report before his lunch when the suspect, Lanier, carjacked someone at gunpoint at Waffle House.
Investigators said Lanier shot at officers and then led them on a chase from I-20 to Airport Road. Partridge said Lanier shot at officers while driving on I-20.
The officer-involved shooting happened at Airport Road and Alabama 21. Lanier was killed in the shooting.
Partridge said Lanier was using a weapon that was stolen from Moody Sunday.
So, out of all the Waffle Houses in Alabama to try a carjacking, this young genius just happens to pick the one where there’s a cop sitting in a patrol car across the street. More from Chief Partridge:
An angry Oxford Police Chief Bill Partridge identified the slain man as 26-year-old Alexander Kade Lanier and lashed out at a judicial system that he said puts police officers in danger of career criminals every day.
The past offenses include assault, first second and third degree, assault and battery of detention officers, hit and run in a stolen vehicle and possession of a gun during a burglary, Partridge said. Many of the offenses happened outside Alabama.
“You name it, he’s done it,” Partridge said of Lanier. “This individual shouldn’t be walking our streets. He should be in jail, and we shouldn’t be standing here today.”
“We’ve got problems with individuals walking our streets like this every single day and being let out of jail or walking away from rehab facilities who have major felonies and then we have to stand here, and we have to justify what we had to do.” . . .
“If this individual will shoot at police officers and carjack a vehicle right across the street from a uniformed marked unit, just imagine what he’d do to our citizens,’’ Partridge said. . . .
This is a very unfortunate incident,’’ Partridge said. “We shouldn’t be standing here because this man should be in jail.”
Partridge, a fierce advocate for law enforcement who is often outspoken about violence against police officers, tweeted this just hours before the shootout: “We continue to see officers shot and killed because individuals think it’s their right to pull gun on officers and resist. It’s never okay to resist or shoot at (law enforcement). Comply. Follow directions, complain later.”
Nationwide, he said, police officers are being shot at record pace by career criminals. On Friday alone, 13 police officers were wounded in shootings over a 24-hour period across four states.
“I’ll tell you what needs to be done. We need to stop passing laws that water down our criminal justice system and allow these individuals to walk our streets,’’ Partridge said.
“We shouldn’t be dealing with this,’’ the chief said. “These men and women shouldn’t be out here every day on our streets putting their life on the line because judges and courts allow these individuals to walk out of a door without bond or putting them in a rehab facility that is not as secure so they can just walk off and obtain a weapon and do this type of thing.”
Certainly, I agree with Chief Partridge, being “a fierce advocate for law enforcement” myself, although this is a stance I came to rather belatedly, long after I’d been in the vicinity of Oxford, Alabama, on dates which I cannot recall, your honor, although I’m sure I could come up with an alibi, if I needed one. But you’d have to talk to my Samoan attorney about all this. The main point is, I’m completely innocent, as far as you know.
See, there’s a reason I don’t have a 48-page rap sheet and didn’t die in a hail of police gunfire, the way Alexander Kade Lanier did. Unlike the deceased Mr. Lanier, I was not dumber than a box of rocks. The ancient proverb “crime doesn’t pay” is perhaps not literally true (some criminals do get rich), but the longer you stay in that game, the more likely you’ll end up behind bars or, as in this case, die in a hail of police gunfire.
Notice that Alexander Kade Lanier is of the Caucasian persuasion. That’s why CNN isn’t running the story 24/7 and nobody looted Walmart or toppled any Confederate monuments after the cops shot him dead.
“Social justice”? White guys don’t get none of that, so we can’t expect any televised news conferences by Ben Crump about this case.
