A Northeast Alabama man suspected of setting his house on fire and killing his wife in December shot and killed himself Wednesday afternoon after a police chase, deputies said.
Johnny Carden, 28, fled after his vehicle was spotted by Jackson County Sheriff’s Department deputies, who had a warrant for his arrest on murder charges, said Sheriff Chuck Phillips.
There also was a 3-year-old boy in Carden’s vehicle, but the sheriff wouldn’t say whether he was Carden’s son. The child was not injured, Phillips said.
Police chased Carden for about five miles on U.S. Highway 72 until Carden pulled into the median and shot himself in the head, Phillips said.
“Nobody in our department had a gun out,” Phillips said. “He just refused to stop.”
The sheriff would not say what the boy’s condition was when police found him in the car. The boy was taken to a hospital as a precaution, Phillips said.
Investigators began to suspect Carden after they found his house in Henagar, Ala., burned to the ground on Dec. 26 and his wife dead inside, said DeKalb County sheriff’s spokeswoman Stanna Guice.
After a monthlong investigation, warrants were issued for Carden’s arrest in Jackson County, Guice said. The attempted arrest for Carden wasn’t planned, she said. Police simply saw him in the area and tried to arrest him, she said.
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