A father is demanding action after his daughter was shot and killed during a home invasion in Columbia, South Carolina, by a repeat offender, police say.
"I'm not going away. My daughter isn't going away," Stephen Federico said Tuesday on "America’s Newsroom."
"I can't save her now, but buckle up. Put your helmet on."
Logan Federico, 22, was visiting friends at a nearby university when she was killed during the break-in, police said. Her alleged killer has an extensive criminal record.
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Stephen Federico testified during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on crime in Charlotte, N.C. (House Judiciary Committee/Screenshot)
Following his daughter’s killing, Federico delivered an emotional plea to lawmakers during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Charlotte.
"Think about your child coming home from a night out with her friends, laying down, going to sleep. Feeling somebody come in the room and wake them," he said, fighting back tears.
"And drag her out of bed, naked, forced on her knees with her hands over her head, begging for her life, begging for her hero, her father, me. That couldn't be there."
Police have identified the suspect as Alexander Devante Dickey. Federico says Dickey had 39 prior charges, including 25 felony charges.
Logan Federico, a 22-year-old aspiring nurse, was killed during a Columbia home break-in on the morning of May 3, police said. (Columbia PD)
He is now urging lawmakers to take stronger action against repeat offenders to avoid future tragedies.
"The soft on crime stuff has to stop. We have to be able to keep career criminals in prisons. We need more prisons, we need more mental institutions, we need more mental health," he said.
Federico argued that if Dickey had been properly prosecuted and put in prison, his daughter might still be alive.
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Some Democrats pushed back, saying "soft-on-crime" policies were not to blame for Logan Federico's death and other killings. Instead, they pointed to local prosecutors and jurisdictions being underfunded and understaffed.
Anthony Dickey is the suspected killer of 22-year-old Logan Federico during a home invasion in Columbia, South Carolina on May 3.
Rep. Deborah Ross, D-N.C., delivered remarks at the hearing, noting that funding for local law enforcement and other criminal justice grants were being slashed.
"These cuts undermine public safety, and they don’t give law enforcement the tools they need to keep us safe," she wrote in a statement.
But Federico rejected that explanation.
"The Democrats are wrong," he said.
"It took 10 minutes to find out that Alexander Dickey was a career criminal and what his extensive record was. They didn’t bother to do their homework. That’s the problem. It’s not because they’re understaffed, it’s because they just didn’t do the work."