Three people gunned down in Gardendale Wednesday morning were victims of a carefully-planned ambush by a 52-year-old Florida man who then fatally shot himself in the parking lot of a Pensacola credit union as lawmen closed in on him.

Kenneth Dion Lever ended his own life Wednesday afternoon after returning to Escambia County, Fla. and meeting with a minister, police said. His suicide came just about eight hours after he methodically shot his victims: 50-year-old Dana Reeves Lever, his ex-wife; her sister, 65-year-old Bonnie Reeves Foshee; and her brother-in-law, 69-year-old Don Foshee.

"He planned it. It was obvious it was a well-thought-out plan,'' said Gardendale police Lt. Bryan Lynch. "He came for that reason. We don't know if he was targeting all three, or if that's just how it happened."

The 11-year-old daughter of Dana and Ken Lever was able to escape physical harm. "The sad part is his own daughter was there to witness this,'' Lynch said.

The ordeal began about 8 a.m. at Dana Lever's home at 4172 Willow Bend Drive in Gardendale's Peachtree Crossings community. Authorities and relatives said Bonnie and Don Foshee were at the home to pick up Dana Lever and her daughter to travel to Chicago to watch the Lever's son graduate from boot camp for the U.S. Navy.

They were packing up the van when Ken Lever emerged from a shed where he had been hiding. "He was lying in ambush for them when this took place,'' said Gardendale Police Chief Mike Walker. "As they were engaged in what looks like packing up the van to go to celebrate this graduation, her father appears with a weapon and begins shooting them one at a time."

Ken Lever - wearing a camo t-shirt and blue jeans and armed with a handgun - opened fire. "He came out and began shooting,'' Lynch said. "All of it took place outside."

The daughter, police said, then ran to a neighbor's home for help. "She did see enough to know what happened and then she ran to a neighbor's house,'' Lynch said. "So we knew very quickly who the suspect was."

Lawmen from across Jefferson County descended upon the scene. Gardendale police, Birmingham, Homewood, Warrior, Kimberly, Fultondale police and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office set up a perimeter. A sheriff's tracking dog was put on the ground, and an Alabama Law Enforcement Agency helicopter circled overhead. The U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI also joined in on the investigation and the hunt.

Walker delivered this message to Ken Lever on the chance he was following news coverage of his crimes: "Turn yourself in. Because we're going to find you."

They said Ken Lever had driven a car to the neighborhood - a red Nissan rented in Pensacola - and parked it by the community pool. He then walked in on foot to carry out the shootings. Afterward, he jumped in one of the victim's vehicles and drove back to the pool where he dumped that and got back into the Nissan.

Gardendale police put the neighborhood on lockdown, and canvassed the area. By 10 a.m., they assumed he had managed to elude lawmen. Still, they fielded numerous tips and sightings, checking Gardendale area neighborhoods and businesses.

"We had a tremendous amount of assistance from numerous agencies,'' Lynch said.

Meanwhile, Lynch said, they had to break devastating news to the young girl. "She didn't know that the victims were dead,'' Lynch said. "We felt like we had to let her know that."

"The chief and I sat her down and the chief told her that her mom had passed away,'' Lynch said.

The girl was in custody of police throughout the day. "We have her,'' Walker had said earlier in the day. "We are discussing a way to help her after this. We will just have to look into the details after everything has settled down."

Almost immediately, DHR was brought in to place the girl in protective custody. Police were hesitant to put her with other family members for fear that Ken Lever would then track her, and them, down.

Police were in constant contact with authorities in Florida, believing he might be headed back toward home. By late morning, Escambia County sheriff's deputies had already staked out Ken Lever's home there, as well as one other location.

The U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force was quickly honing in on Ken Lever's whereabouts. "That's somebody you never want coming looking for you,'' Lynch said.

Meanwhile, an Escambia County sheriff's deputy had spotted Ken Lever in the Nissan. Once he knew he was spotted - speculation is he got stuck in traffic with no way to flee - authorities say the suspect stepped out of his vehicle and shot himself dead.

The suicide happened at the Navy Federal Credit Union's call center on West Nine Mile Road near I-10. Walker said they had anticipated the ending."We were not surprised. based on witness statements, he had already made statements before any of this that he was thinking about killing himself,'' Walker told AL.com Wednesday afternoon.

Again, authorities had to deliver bad news to the young girl. "We then had to tell her that her father committed suicide,'' Lynch said.

Once Ken Lever killed himself, authorities were able to place the girl with family members. "She has been so traumatized,'' Lynch said. "I don't know that she has filtered it all thoroughly. She's going to need a lot of support."

Authorities said the Red Cross and U.S. Navy officials were in contact with police during the day and were handling notifying the son of the incident and the deaths.

Other family members found out throughout the day. Gerald Foshee said his brother was a Vietnam veteran. He said he and brother, both of whom grew up in north Birmingham, were very close.

"My brother was a great guy, very family oriented and he would have done anything for anyone,''Gerald Foshee told AL.com. "He survived Vietnam only for him and his wife to be killed by this idiot."

Police said they don't for sure know what sparked the rampage, but said obviously it was domestic.

A protection from abuse order was issued against Lever in December 2016 in Jefferson County on Dana Lever's behalf.

Dana Lever claimed that Lever was abusing her 11-year-old daughter during unsupervised visitation. The girl, according to public records, had been seeing a therapist and the therapist called the mother with concerns. "My daughter has a different disposition when she returns home,'' Dana Lever wrote. "She is very clingy to me and will not let me leave her. She wants to sleep in my bed and she wants to sleep with the lights on."

According to that protection request and other public records, Lever has charges pending in Pennsylvania for sexual abuse with a minor believed to be a 5-year-old neighbor.

Lever was charged by Lower Windsor Township Police, York County, Pa., on Sept. 28, 2015 and Oct. 13, 2015 in two separate sexual assault cases, according to records obtained by The York Daily Record.

In both cases, Lever was charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, aggravated indecent assault of a child, indecent assault person less than 13 years of age, corruption of minors, and distribution of explicit sexual material of a minor.

Lever was placed in York County Prison on Oct. 12, 2015, on the first case on $100,000 and was bailed out the next day. He was again jailed on Oct. 15, and posted an additional $100,000 and released later the same day.

The cases are scheduled for jury trial in York County Court of Common Pleas on Sept. 11, according to online court dockets.

Chief Walker praised the teams of law enforcement agencies that flocked to help throughout the day: "Thank you to all of our law enforcement friends, who came to help today. Special thanks to the Metro Area Crime Center of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Mike Hale for all of the technical assistance at the scene and in the search for Kenneth Lever. Thank you to Captain Dave Thompson and Sergeant Mike House of the MACC for spearheading that effort. We have been a proponent of the MACC since the Sheriff first proposed the unit and are very proud to be a integral part. MACC certainly proved it's worth today for anyone that may have had a doubt.

Thank you to FBI -Birmingham, US Marshals, ATF, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, ALEA, Birmingham PD, Homewood PD, Vestavia Hills PD, Fultondale PD, Hueytown PD, Kimberly PD, Warrior PD, Gardendale Fire and Rescue, and any others I may have overlooked. And thank you to Chaplain De Allen with Gardendale First Baptist Church for logistical and spiritual support."

"We're glad that it is over with,'' Lynch said, "and we're glad more people weren't hurt, including any law enforcement officers that may have encountered him because he was a very dangerous person."

AL.com staffers Ivana Hrynkiw, Jeremy Gray and Brian McAlister contributed to this report.