Sheriff's Dispatcher Killed By Deputy Boyfriend In Apparent Murder-Suicide
An Alabama sheriff’s office dispatcher was fatally shot by her deputy boyfriend in an apparent murder-suicide, police said.
Lexi White, a 911 dispatcher for the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office, was found dead on Thursday alongside boyfriend Kenneth Booth, a deputy for the same office. He shot her, then himself, the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.
Kevin Booth and Lexi White.
Authorities said White and Booth were dating, and they believed the two had an argument that escalated to the point where Booth pulled out his gun and shot her.
White was 23, the Cullman Tribune reported. According to authorities, she had been a member of the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office since she was 16, beginning as a charter member of its Youth Leadership Academy.
Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry said the office is “devastated” by the lost of their dispatcher.
“There are not enough words to express what she and her family mean to me. I am literally heartbroken. I feel like Lexi is one of my own kids,” he said in the press release.
According to data by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 72% of all murder-suicides involved an intimate partner, and 94% of the victims are women or girls.
Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
