In the early morning hours of September 7, 2023, the life of 23-year-old Alexis 'Lexi' White, a female dispatch supervisor for the Cullman County Sheriff's Office, was tragically cut short in a violent encounter in Orange Beach, Alabama. Responding to a 911 call at approximately 2:45 a.m., Orange Beach Police officers arrived at the Seaside Beach and Racquet Club on Perdido Beach Boulevard to a grim scene. Inside a common area of the condominium complex, they discovered the bodies of White and her boyfriend, 28-year-old Cullman County Sheriff's K9 Deputy Kenneth 'Kenny' Booth Jr. Both had sustained fatal gunshot wounds.
The subsequent investigation by the Orange Beach Police Department quickly revealed the incident to be a murder-suicide. It was determined that during an apparent argument, Booth had drawn a weapon and shot White multiple times before turning the gun on himself. The two were in a dating relationship at the time of the tragic event. The Cullman County Sheriff's Office, where both White and Booth were employed, expressed profound shock and devastation at the loss of two of their own. Sheriff Matt Gentry described White as someone he considered one of his own children, noting her long affiliation with the sheriff's office since the age of 16 when she joined the Youth Leadership Academy.
In the aftermath of the shooting, no arrests were made as the sole suspect, Kenneth Booth Jr., was deceased at the scene. The investigation into the circumstances that led to the fatal argument is ongoing. In October 2023, Alexis White's father, acting as the administrator of her estate, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against multiple parties. The lawsuit alleges that Booth was heavily intoxicated at the time of the shooting and seeks punitive damages from establishments that allegedly sold him alcohol despite his visible intoxication.
