Burglary Suspect Leads Mobile Police on 24-Mile Chase That Ends in Axis

What started as a traffic stop in west Mobile ended nearly 24 miles north after a burglary suspect refused to pull over. Mobile police said the car 28-year-old Ladarren Dixon was driving had been flagged in connection with a Dec. 29 attack at a home, making the vehicle itself a point of interest long before an officer’s lights appeared in its mirrors.

Around 10:18 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 30, officers spotted the vehicle near Navco and McVay Drive and tried to stop it at the intersection. Dixon instead took off, leading officers on a pursuit that stretched roughly 24 miles before ending in Axis, in north Mobile County. The chase crossed a wide swath of the county in a matter of minutes, moving from the city’s western neighborhoods up through the rural stretches of U.S. 43 before it finally came to an end.

Dixon was taken into custody after the pursuit ended. Nobody was reported injured in the chase itself, but the route it took — through residential areas and along busy corridors at night — illustrated the risks inherent in any vehicle pursuit, and the lengths to which a suspect facing serious charges will go to avoid a traffic stop that he already knew was coming.

Why the Car Was Flagged

The chase traces back to a burglary call two days earlier. Police said they responded to a home on Old Shell Road around 2:45 p.m. on Dec. 28 and determined that two burglary suspects had been at the residence when the owner arrived. The confrontation between a returning homeowner and the people inside his own house is among the most dangerous scenarios officers respond to, and it immediately elevated the case beyond a routine burglary report.

One suspect fled the scene in the vehicle the pair had arrived in; a second suspect assaulted the homeowner before leaving on foot or by other means, according to police. The getaway car’s description went out to officers across the area, which is how a vehicle spotted near Navco and McVay Drive two nights later drew a stop attempt in the first place.

That flag turned an ordinary traffic stop into the recovery of evidence in an open felony case — and turned Dixon’s decision to flee into a second, separate set of charges on top of whatever role investigators believe he played in the original incident.

The Man Who Got Away — For Now

Investigators are still working to identify and locate the second suspect, who is accused of attacking the homeowner, and the case remains an ongoing investigation. The attacker left the Old Shell Road scene on foot or by other means rather than in the getaway car, which means the chase that ended in Axis did not close the book on the incident — it recovered one piece of it.

Detectives continue to canvass the area around the home, review any additional leads, and sort out who did what during the confrontation with the homeowner. Authorities have not announced additional arrests, and the identification of the second suspect remains the investigative priority as the case moves forward.

Inside a 24-Mile Pursuit

A pursuit that covers roughly 24 miles is a long one by any measure. From the intersection near Navco and McVay Drive in west Mobile, the route carried the fleeing vehicle and its police pursuers north through the county — past neighborhoods, commercial strips, and increasingly rural terrain — until it ended in Axis, the small community in the county’s northern reaches along the U.S. 43 corridor.

Pursuits are governed by strict departmental policy. Officers weigh the seriousness of the underlying offense, traffic conditions, time of night, and the risk posed to the public before continuing a chase, and supervisors monitor the pursuit as it develops. The decision to keep going after a vehicle connected to a home-invasion-style burglary reflects how seriously the department treats that original case — and how quickly a late-night traffic stop can escalate once a driver decides not to stop.

For residents along the route, the passage of a pursuit is a jarring event: sirens converging from multiple directions, patrol units staging at intersections ahead of the fleeing car, and the sudden appearance of the suspect vehicle moving at speeds no neighborhood street is built for. That a 24-mile run ended with a suspect in custody rather than a crash counts, in the accounting officers keep, as the better outcome.

Old Shell Road and the Case That Started It

Old Shell Road is one of Mobile’s oldest and longest east-west corridors, threading through some of the city’s most established neighborhoods west of the downtown core. The home on Old Shell Road where the burglary was reported sits in that stretch of the city — a quiet residential setting where an owner returning to find strangers inside is the kind of call that resonates through the surrounding blocks.

The sequence police described is one investigators see repeatedly: two suspects arrive together, are interrupted by the owner’s return, and split in the panic of the moment. One makes it to the car and drives away, unknowingly leaving behind a description that will surface two nights later near Navco and McVay Drive. The other, cut off from the vehicle, attacks the homeowner and escapes on foot — a violent end to an encounter that began as a property crime.

That split is why the case now runs on two tracks. Dixon’s custody addresses the vehicle and the chase; the search for the second suspect addresses the assault. Until that person is identified, both tracks remain open, and investigators say the public may yet play a role in identifying the attacker.

Charges a Suspect Faces When He Runs

Eluding police in Alabama carries escalating consequences: attempting to flee from an officer is an offense on its own, and when a pursuit involves high speeds, risk to other motorists, or the circumstances of the underlying crime, the charges multiply. A suspect in Dixon’s position — flagged in connection with a burglary and assault case and then fleeing a marked attempt to stop him — faces the original investigation and the pursuit as separate matters.

Vehicle pursuits also generate their own evidence: dash and body camera footage, GPS traces of the route, witness reports along the corridor, and the physical condition of the vehicle itself. Investigators reconstruct the chase after the fact, and that reconstruction becomes part of the case file that prosecutors review when deciding how to charge the flight itself.

The recovery of the vehicle police believe was used in the Dec. 28 burglary adds another layer. Forensic processing of a recovered car — fingerprints, DNA, items left inside — can tie or exclude a suspect from the original scene, which is one reason officers place such importance on stopping and impounding a flagged vehicle rather than simply calling off a pursuit.

Navco, McVay, and the Geography of the Chase

The intersection where the pursuit began sits in the western reaches of Mobile, where Navco Road and McVay Drive meet amid a mix of residential streets and working corridors. It is the kind of intersection an officer knows well — wide enough to attempt a stop, busy enough at 10:18 p.m. to demand care, and positioned with routes running in several directions, which is precisely why a driver who intends to run chooses to do it there.

Axis, where the run ended, sits near the northern edge of Mobile County, a community of modest homes and roadside businesses along U.S. 43 north of the industrial corridor. The distance between the two points traces nearly the full north-south length of the western county, a route that crosses multiple patrol districts and requires coordination among responding units as the chase moves out of one area and into another.

Pursuits that cross jurisdictions typically draw in additional agencies as they go — sheriff’s deputies along the county roads, and municipal departments where the route passes through their boundaries. The end of a long chase is rarely a single event; it is a coordinated shutdown involving multiple units positioning ahead of the fleeing vehicle until there is nowhere left to go.

The Homeowner’s Experience

The most serious harm in the case was done before the chase ever began, when a homeowner opened his door on Old Shell Road and found burglars inside. Confrontations of this kind can turn deadly in seconds, and in this one the man was assaulted before the intruder fled on foot. Police have not detailed his injuries or condition, but the attack is the element of the case that drives the ongoing investigation — identifying the person responsible remains the stated priority.

Officers urge residents who come home to signs of a burglary in progress not to enter: no piece of property is worth a confrontation, and an occupant who surprises an intruder is statistically at far greater risk of violence than one who waits outside and calls 911. Dispatchers can have units en route within moments, and a description given from the driveway — of people, of a car, of a direction of travel — is often the detail that leads to a stop like the one that eventually caught this case’s vehicle.

How the Community Can Help

With the second suspect still unidentified, investigators say residents of the Old Shell Road area may hold the missing pieces: anyone who saw two people in the neighborhood that afternoon, who noticed the vehicle they arrived in, or who has cameras facing the street where the confrontation happened. Such details can be reported directly to Mobile police, or anonymously through the department’s tip channels.

The case also serves as a reminder of how the pieces fit together across a county. A burglary on Old Shell Road put a description into the system; two nights later that description produced a stop attempt near Navco and McVay; a decision to flee turned a traffic stop into a 24-mile pursuit that ended with an arrest in Axis. Every stage depended on information recorded and shared in the stage before it.

The investigation remains open, and authorities have not said whether additional charges or arrests are expected. What is certain is that one of the two suspects is in custody, the vehicle connected to the case has been recovered, and the search for the man accused of attacking the homeowner continues.