Residents in southeastern Kentucky were urged to “remain vigilant” Sunday after a highway gunman injured five people while reportedly camped out and shooting at passing cars.
Investigators are still searching for suspect, Joseph A. Couch, 32, who they believe is still armed and dangerous in the remote Kentucky woodlands near the site of the attack.
Deputy Gilbert Acciardo, the public information officer for the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office, said investigators still have not determined a motive for the terrifying attack.
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“It’s so wooded, there’s one business, there’s not residences,” Acciardov said. “He couldn’t have picked an area that is any more remote and difficult for us to try and locate him.”
Acciardo said the search through the woodlands was a “difficult” and “tedious” task, but remained hopeful that they would locate the suspect before nightfall. “We want to get him tonight. We want to get him before it gets dark again. But no promises.”
The spokesperson also shed some new light on the injuries sustained by the victims. The worst included one person shot in the face, and another shot in the arm, Acciardo said.
Another woman was “shot across the chest,” Acciardo added.
“We didn’t have a fatality, but we certainly had some very serious injuries that will affect these people for the rest of their life, I’m sure.”
Police in Laurel County said officers who responded to a 911 call early Saturday evening on Interstate 75 found vehicles with bullet holes parked on the side of the highway and several injured people.
“Some of them were injured so badly and bleeding so bad that our deputies actually loaded them up and took them to an area hospital,” said Acciardo at a Sunday media briefing. “Everything was chaotic.” The five victims are expected to recover and were listed in stable condition.
Initial reports suggested the shooting began as a result of a road rage incident, the sheriff’s office said, but officers determined a shooter camped out near a highway exit and shot at passing cars. A strip of the highway was closed by police after the incident on Saturday but later reopened.
Couch, 32, was first named as a person of interest—and later the official suspect—with police warning he should be considered armed and dangerous. “We got some breaks in the in this case to identify a suspect early on and I really think this is going to be the guy,” Acciardo added.
Police said they recovered a "small silver colored SUV" registered to Couch off a highway exit and that a rifle case was in the vehicle. They also found a an AR-15 in a wooded area next to the highway that could be the weapon that was used in the incident.
A U.S. Forest Service road is located near Exit 49, Acciardo said, which extends up to 11 miles into the wilderness. The suspect’s vehicle was found at an offshoot of that main service road, the spokesperson added.
A Facebook post by the sheriff’s office said both ground and drone searches were being conducted.
“Please remain vigilant and call 911 if you see the individual in question,” said Randall Weddle, the mayor of nearby London, KY, in an early morning Facebook post on Sunday. “Let’s keep the victims, their families, and all of our first responders in our thoughts and prayers.”
