A customer at a Frisco City convenience store is dead following an attempted carjacking Thursday morning, according to Monroe County Sheriff Tom Boatwright.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said the first 911 call reported a man with a knife blocking the front entrance of the Frisco City Food Mart. As deputies were responding, a second call came in reporting that the suspect had carjacked a vehicle.
Sheriff Boatwright said the suspect, Charles Dale — known locally as “Rat” — got into a customer’s car and fired a shot inside the vehicle, striking and killing the driver. The car then crashed into a tree behind the store. The suspect then got into another vehicle in the parking lot and barricaded himself inside with a rifle, the sheriff said.
Authorities said Dale fired at deputies as they arrived. One deputy broke a shoulder while taking cover. Deputies returned fire, striking Dale twice; he was expected to survive with injuries to his eye and shoulder, Boatwright said.
Crime scene tape and a heavy law enforcement presence kept Highway 21 in the heart of Frisco City closed for nearly five hours. The road reopened around 2 p.m. Thursday.
Boatwright said Dale had been in and out of mental health facilities over the years and was known to local law enforcement. The sheriff called the case “a prime example of the failure of the mental health system in Alabama.”