Anniston police officers and investigators look in the street in front of a house on Chatwood Drive in Saks, where a woman was allegedly shot and killed by her husband, a former police officer. Trent Penny/The Anniston Star
A former warrants officer for the Anniston Police Department was in custody in Mississippi Monday in connection with two Calhoun County shootings that led to a manhunt and security lockdowns at the police department and City Hall.
Frederick Boyd, 43, surrendered to officials in Meridian, Miss., before noon Monday, hours after the Anniston Police Department and the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office issued warrants for his arrest in two early morning crimes. Boyd faces a murder charge in the Monday morning shooting death of his wife and an attempted murder charge from an incident in Hobson City the same morning.
Calhoun County Chief Deputy Matthew Wade said deputies responded to a call on Martin Luther King Drive in Hobson City around 7 a.m. Monday. A man, identified as a family member of Boyd, said the suspect knocked on his door and opened fire on him. After the man said he shot back, Boyd left the scene in a black GMC Yukon sports utility vehicle, Wade said.
Wade said deputies were going to Boyd’s residence on Chatwood Drive in Saks to question him when they learned of a second shooting that morning at the home already under investigation by the Anniston Police Department.
Anniston police Lt. Fred Forsythe said Boyd was the suspect in the death of his wife, Cormella Boyd, 41.
Police reports state that the Saks shooting occurred between 6:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. and the Hobson City shooting occurred at 7:10 a.m.
Police placed City Hall and the police department’s headquarters on lockdown Monday morning, with officers with assault rifles stationed outside the buildings. Anniston Police Chief Layton McGrady said Boyd had not made direct threats against either building. Police Lt. Shane Denham said the measures were a precaution police took because of Boyd’s history with the department.
Boyd left the police department in August 2011, after a 17-year career. Before his resignation, Boyd's supervisors had transferred him from serving warrants to a desk job within the warrants division, taking in reports, Denham said.
"There were issues that made us transfer him," Denham said, noting he wasn't at liberty to elaborate on what those specific "issues" were. "We really didn't know what we wanted to do with him."
The same month that he resigned, Boyd, who is black, filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the department claiming he was repeatedly harassed and denied promotion due to racial discrimination. That month, Anniston City Councilman Ben Little provided The Star with a DVD containing 50 pages of documents recounting Boyd’s experiences with fellow officers and several audio recordings alleged to be proof of racial comments aimed at Boyd.
The audio files were mostly indecipherable.
In November, the EEOC ruled there was not sufficient evidence to prove the police department had discriminated against Boyd.
By 10 a.m., news of the shooting in Saks had spread, and family members had gathered near the blocked-off street. None would discuss the matter with reporters. Two neighbors told a reporter they had seen police officers arriving on the scene prior to 8 a.m. Both men said they didn’t know Boyd personally, but one said he knew the man used to work as a police officer.
Forsythe said that, judging from the time frame, it’s likely Boyd left his house in Saks, went to Hobson City and drove to Mississippi afterward. Forsythe said police are investigating the motive behind the shootings.
Wade said Calhoun County deputies were on their way to Meridian Monday afternoon to extradite Boyd.
Staff writers Cameron Steele, Eddie Burkhalter and Laura Camper and Assistant Metro Editor Tim Lockette contributed to this story.
Staff writer Brian Anderson: 256-235-3546. On Twitter @BAnderson_Star
