LEXINGTON – Two Carroll County deputies plan to argue self-defense when they appear in court next month for shooting into the wrong car during the pursuit of a stolen vehicle. John Kevin Beck and Curtis Alford were indicted on 21 different counts last month including aggravated assault, shooting into an occupied vehicle and obstructing justice.
Holmes County Sheriff Willie March said the indictment came after an incident earlier this year where Beck and Alford were reportedly pursuing a suspect in Carroll County and the chase spilled over into neighboring Holmes County.
March said the deputies’ suspect had allegedly stolen a truck from the Jackson area when they reportedly lost sight of him in Holmes County.
March said he became aware of the shooting the next morning when a Holmes County resident, Odessa Montgomery, approached him and told him he had been shot at.
“I was at the red light watching the kids cross the highway and Odessa drove up and said he wanted to talk to me,” March said. “He said, ‘Some deputies shot at me last night.’ And I said, ‘Was it one of my deputies?‘ and he said they were Carroll County deputies.”
March said he first phoned Carroll County Sheriff Jerry Carver and then began an investigation of his own.
“Something didn’t look right to me,” March said. “My understanding was they were chasing another suspect in a truck stolen out of Jackson, and Odessa was in a car. He didn’t have anything to do with it, and they shot through the back of his car.”
March said Montgomery was not injured, but there were at least nine bullet holes in his newer model Pontiac.
“The bullets hit the trunk and the dashboard,” March said, “and his back windshield was [shot out].”
Carroll County Sheriff Jerry Carver said Beck, who has been with the department about three years, was placed on paid administrative leave while he conducted an internal investigation.
“I wanted to talk to them individually,” the newly re-elected Carver said. “And when it first came down, only one of them was on leave and that was Beck. He was the shooter. And he was on leave about two weeks. But Alford was not on leave.”
Carver said Alford has been with the department for about a year, and after speaking with the attorney general, both men are now back on duty.
“We also checked with several other places that would have information about this,” he said. “And there is nothing in the statute that said they have to be on leave. They are innocent until proven guilty.”
Carver said the suspect from Jackson was never caught and he was not shooting at the deputies during the pursuit.
Carver also said pending litigation, he’s been advised not to speak about the case against his deputies, but he said all of the information that has been printed about the case in various newspapers is incorrect.
“It’s not right,” Carver said. “They didn’t print what actually happened. And I can’t really talk about it. But it is not normal protocol for deputies to shoot into a moving vehicle, but it was special circumstances, a split second decision. And it’s one of those things where I might have done the same thing myself under the circumstances.”
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