Search for suspect in Kentucky highway shooting enters third day

LONDON, Ky. (AP) — The grueling manhunt for a suspect in a highway shooting that struck 12 vehicles and injured five people entered its third day Monday. Authorities said they would continue the search relentlessly as pressure remains high in the rural area, where some schools have been canceled.

Since Saturday evening, authorities have been searching a rugged hillside in southeastern Kentucky after a gunman began shooting at motorists on Interstate 75 near London. London is a small town of about 8,000 residents, about 120 kilometers south of Lexington.

As darkness fell on Sunday evening, the search was temporarily suspended but was scheduled to resume on Monday morning.

“We won't give up until we catch him,” Laurel County Sheriff John Root said Sunday evening.

Joseph A. Couch, 32, was initially named as a suspect and later as a suspect in the shooting after authorities found his SUV on an access road near the crime scene. They later found a semi-automatic weapon nearby that they believe was used in the shooting, said Deputy Gilbert Acciardo, a spokesman for the local sheriff's office.

As another day of searching ended Sunday with no trace of the suspect, Acciardo acknowledged the frustration of police officers and people living near the search area.

“If this continues, it's going to be more and more stressful for the community, it's going to be more and more stressful for the officers there because we're looking … and we're trying to find him and we haven't found him,” he said.

London State Police spokesman Scottie Pennington said officers from across the state are being hired to help with the manhunt. He described the extensive search area as “a walk through the jungle” with machetes needed to cut through dense forest.

Acciardo said it appears the attacker planned the shooting at the location because it is very remote and the terrain is hilly, rocky and difficult to navigate.

With the shooter still at large, numerous school districts canceled classes for Monday. Pennington urged residents to lock their doors, keep porch lights on and monitor security cameras. The search was focused on a remote area about eight miles north of London.

Authorities tried to reassure residents as they were confident the suspect would be found.

“We're doing everything we can do,” Root said, adding, “Just be confident.”

Authorities said Couch bought the gun and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition in London on Saturday morning. Couch has a military background and served in the National Guard for at least four years, said Capt. Richard Dalrymple of the Laurel County Sheriff's Office.

Authorities initially said nine vehicles were hit by gunfire, but later increased that number to 12 because some people did not realize their cars had been hit by bullets until they got home. They said the gunman fired 20 to 30 shots in total.

Couch was last living in Woodbine, a small community about 20 miles south of the crime scene. Acciardo said authorities found his abandoned vehicle on Saturday and an AR-15 rifle on Sunday in a wooded area near a highway where “he could have shot himself down on the highway.” A phone believed to belong to Couch was also found by officers, but the battery had been removed.

Some Laurel County residents were nervous as authorities searched with a drone, a helicopter and on foot in a remote and sparsely populated wooded area near the busy highway.

Cody Shepherd, who was sipping a Bloody Mary while waiting to watch a soccer game outdoors at the Pour Boyz Sports Lounge in London on Sunday, said locals have been doing a lot of speculation. Shepherd, who lives in London, was at a party at a friend's house on Saturday, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of where the shooting occurred.

“We listened to police radios all night,” he said, adding that they heard sirens and saw a helicopter overhead.

On Sunday, several local churches canceled their services. But Rodney Goodlett, pastor of Faith Assembly of God in London, helped direct traffic as congregants gathered for morning worship, anticipating that the search would reduce attendance.

“It's obviously tragic that someone would randomly commit acts of violence,” he said. “You hear in the media what's happening all over our country, but when you remember it at home, it's a bit of a wake-up call.”

Acciardo said authorities are being inundated with tips from the public and are following up on each one to find the shooter. When the search is suspended at night, specially trained officers are deployed at strategic points in the forest to prevent the shooter from escaping the area.

“We have to get him,” said Acciardo.