Denorrious Darnel Garner, 29, male, was caught up in a deadly chain of events near Columbiana, Alabama, in the dark early hours of February 22, 2022, after deputies with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office began pursuing a vehicle in south Shelby County. The chase ended on County Road 37 near Verde Green Lane when the vehicle crashed, leaving Garner dead at the scene and the other occupant badly injured.
Early official statements were careful and limited, saying investigators had not found evidence that law enforcement used deadly force against the men, but they still turned the case over to the Shelby County Major Crimes Task Force to determine exactly what led to Garner’s death and the severe injuries suffered by the second occupant. Reporting that followed described the episode as more than a simple wreck, with accounts indicating gunfire had erupted during the pursuit before the crash shattered the night.
As the story unfolded, the second man from the vehicle was publicly identified as Skyler Austin Wilson of Columbiana, who was reported to have been critically injured in the crash and later died from those injuries. Despite the seriousness of the allegations surrounding the pursuit, including reports that shots were fired from the fleeing vehicle, the publicly available coverage does not show any arrest, charging decision, or later prosecution tied specifically to Garner’s death. No separate suspect was publicly named in connection with killing Garner, and the men inside the crashed vehicle remained the central known figures in the case. In the end, the case appears to have settled into the uneasy space that some pursuit deaths do, where the broad outline became known quickly, but the deeper answers about what happened inside those frantic minutes on the road never fully emerged in public reporting.
