Overview
- Investigators arrived just before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday to serve a search warrant at a home on Lee Road 2222 in Salem when a gunshot was heard, and a 35-year-old man was later found dead from an apparent self-inflicted wound.
- The warrant was tied to an investigation into the reported sexual assault of a juvenile, and Opelika Police are now leading that case.
- Sheriff Jay Jones said deputies followed knock-and-announce procedures and did not discharge or even draw their weapons during the encounter.
- About an hour earlier, deputies responded to a separate domestic disturbance; after a brief pursuit, a 54-year-old driver apparently shot himself near Lee Roads 240 and 241.
- Authorities say the two death investigations are unrelated, and the coroner will release the names after next-of-kin notifications.