Phenix City woman gunned down in driveway on Fourth Place South, coroner says

A Phenix City woman was shot and killed in a driveway on Fourth Place South near 12th Avenue, the Russell County coroner said Saturday.

Erica Elias, 36, was pronounced dead at the scene of multiple gunshots at 10:20 a.m., according to coroner Arthur Sumbry Jr. Her body will be transported to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Montgomery on Monday for an autopsy.

Police said they were called to the area about 7:20 a.m. after a man walking nearby saw the woman in a pool of blood.

“I had to wave somebody down,” the man who found the body told the Ledger. “I couldn’t just leave her there.” He declined to give his name, but he said he talked with police at the scene this morning.

He said he had met Elias before on his walks in the neighborhood. “She was always nice to me,” he said.

The shooting death remains under investigation by the Phenix City Police Department.

This story was originally published February 23, 2019 at 12:43 PM.