John “Cal” Stutts, a 28-year-old male, died after a violent, fast-unfolding encounter with law enforcement that ended in the parking lot of a Taco Bell at Springville Station in Springville, Alabama. Authorities said the chain of events began late Wednesday night, September 7, 2022, when police in Steele responded to reports of an armed carjacking at the Love’s travel stop near Interstate 59. From the outset, investigators described the suspect as desperate and dangerous, moving through the night as multiple agencies tried to contain him before anyone else was hurt.
Not long after the carjacking was reported, officers located the vehicle and attempted to stop it, but the driver refused. A pursuit developed that stretched across jurisdictions and down the interstate, with authorities saying Stutts fired shots from a rifle at officers and deputies during the chase. The pursuit eventually pushed into the Springville area, where spike strips were deployed to disable the fleeing vehicle. Even then, the situation did not cool; the car reached Springville Station and crashed into two parked vehicles outside the Taco Bell, jolting the quiet commercial strip into chaos.
Sheriff’s officials said the final confrontation lasted only seconds. After the crash, Stutts exited the vehicle still armed with the rifle, and authorities stated he fired again and then pointed the weapon toward law enforcement. With people inside the restaurant and the danger escalating, deputies and officers opened fire, striking him. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and officials emphasized that no officers were injured during the chase or the shooting.
As the first reports circulated, Stutts was described as being from Sheffield, Alabama, and law enforcement said he was wanted in Georgia. Separate law-enforcement messaging from Georgia around that period also sought help locating John “Cal” Stutts in connection with outstanding warrants and a jail-related incident, underscoring that he was already on investigators’ radar beyond Alabama. In the aftermath of the shooting, authorities indicated the case would be reviewed by outside investigators, with the Oxford Police Department and the Jacksonville State University Center for Applied Forensics brought in to help examine the scene and evidence as is customary in officer-involved shootings.
Because Stutts was identified by authorities as the armed carjacking suspect who was killed during the confrontation, there were no arrests of a separate suspect in his death, and officials instead focused on the investigative review of the officers’ actions and the events leading up to the shooting. Some later compilations list the death date differently, but contemporary reporting and the sheriff’s account placed the incident in the early hours following September 7, 2022, with public updates issued on September 8, 2022.
