Suspect in Alabama triple slaying kills himself in Florida

(Reuters) - A man suspected of killing three relatives in a trailer park in Alabama shot and killed himself on Wednesday after he was spotted by sheriff's deputies near Pensacola in Escambia County, Florida, authorities said.

Police suspected Kenneth Lever, 52, of the killings in Gardendale, Alabama, which is near Birmingham.

Deb Henley, spokeswoman for the Escambia County Sheriff's Office said, "Our deputies engaged the suspect (Lever) then he got out of a car and he shot himself."

Gardendale Police Chief Mike Walker on Wednesday morning told reporters that he suspected that Lever was driving a 2017 red Nissan Sentra and may have fled to northwest Florida, where he lived in the past. Law officers across Alabama and northwest Florida joined in the manhunt for Lever.

Lever was in a red Nissan when he was encountered by Escambia County deputies and shot himself, Henley said. Escambia County is in northwest Florida.

The victims were identified by Gardendale police as Dana Reeves Lever, 50, of Gardendale, Bonnie Reeves Foshee, 65, of Fultondale, Alabama and Don Austin Foshee, 69, of Fultondale.

Marty Keely of the U.S. Marshals Service in North Alabama said the victims were Lever's ex-wife and his former brother-in-law and sister-in-law.

Lever was facing a September trial on sexual abuse charges including "involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child" in York County, Pennsylvania, court records there show.

Lever's attorney in York County could not immediately be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York and Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Editing by Diane Craft and Cynthia Osterman)