A father, already in mourning, became more outraged after discovering that the suspect accused of murdering his daughter in a home burglary could have been incarcerated earlier for numerous other offenses, if not for a purported clerical mistake.
Logan Federico, a 22-year-old aspiring teacher from Waxhaw, North Carolina, was with friends at the University of South Carolina in Columbia and staying at a Cypress Street residence when a “career criminal” broke in and fatally shot her during the early morning hours of May 3.
Suspect Alexander Dickey, a 30-year-old man with an extensive criminal record, entered the home early in the morning, stole multiple credit and debit cards, and shot Logan fatally in what Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook described as a “random” crime during a press conference on May 5.
“The main cog in this whole problem was the processing system of a career criminal that eventually escalated to executing Logan Federico,” Logan’s father, Stephen Federico, told Fox News Digital. “And this wasn’t just a random go-in-and-shoot-somebody. This was a guy that was a career criminal. And that’s why I hate the word ‘random’ being used. He wasn’t a random criminal. He was a career criminal that came across my daughter… and literally stuck a gun in her rib cage and pulled the trigger, for absolutely no reason.”
“The shooting that ended the life of Logan Federico was a senseless tragedy that left her family and friends in pain,” Lexington County Sheriff’s Office told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Their pain prompts us in law enforcement to help prosecutors forge a rock-solid case against Alexander Dickey when his day in court comes.”
Stephen Federico recounts the moment he learned his daughter, Logan, had been fatally shot while visiting friends at USC in Columbia, South Carolina. (Adam Eugene Willis for Fox News Digital)
But the sheriff’s department added that Dickey’s full record was readily available, even if his fingerprints were not included in his SLED rap sheet.
“Anyone in the criminal justice system who had a role in his numerous cases over the past decade could access his long criminal history…”
“Anyone in the criminal justice system who had a role in his numerous cases over the past decade could access his long criminal history and see a variety of charges, including 23 arrests in Lexington County alone,” the department said. “His felony charges from April 2013 through April 2024 are on his rap sheet and also listed on the court’s public website.”
The sheriff’s office said Dickey’s charges involving eight different law enforcement agencies led the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department to book Dickey 11 times between 2013 and 2025.
Logan Federico was a 22-year-old aspiring teacher from North Carolina, working two jobs while studying at Central Piedmont Community College. (handout)
“Dickey was held in [Lexington County Detention Center] from Aug. 13, 2014 until he was sent to state prison Nov. 21, 2014. His fingerprints were taken during the booking process on Aug. 13, 2014,” the department said. “Concerns have been raised as to whether his fingerprints were transmitted according to protocol after he was served additional arrest warrants while still in LCDC later in August and October 2014. We have reviewed all of Dickey’s bookings and we were unable to determine if his prints were taken at the time of those additional in-custody bookings in 2014. It’s possible the lack of prints associated with those bookings were the result of human or machine error.”
The sheriff’s department further added that it has “worked with state law enforcement and prosecutors in the weeks since Logan’s death to ensure the information from Dickey’s 11 bookings at LCDC is accurate.”
“Since his last arrest, we have provided Dickey’s fingerprints to state police to complete the August and October 2014 booking files. It’s important to note the cases in question were adjudicated and Dickey was sentenced on those charges in 2014 and 2015,” the department said. “As the agency that apprehended and arrested Dickey following his most recent crime wave over multiple jurisdictions, we have a significant role in this case.”
Logan Federico, a 22-year-old aspiring nurse, was fatally shot during a Columbia home break-in on the morning of May 3. (Columbia PD)
Stephen Federico said he is grateful to law enforcement for solving his daughter’s murder within 36 hours after she was found dead, but he is determined to expose problems within the criminal justice system that allowed Dickey to remain on the streets before he allegedly killed Logan.
“I am angry, and I’m trying to be very professional, very respectful, and I will never, ever downgrade what the law enforcement did for me and my family and Logan in 36 hours of solving this case. And it hasn’t gone to the courts yet, but it will, and they keep accumulating evidence and evidence, and are doing a great, outstanding job. But that doesn’t mean… that there aren’t holes in the system,” he said.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of why it happened,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going to come of that. The finger pointing… everybody can finger point everywhere they want. But there is a process that’s gonna lead us back to where it started and where it ended and who needs to be held responsible for it.”
Dickey is charged with murder, two counts of first-degree burglary, two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, two counts of grand larceny, grand larceny of a motor vehicle, and three counts of financial transaction card theft.
His next court appearance is scheduled for July 25. He faces life in prison for the charges filed against him in Lexington County.
Dickey’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
