Police search for man accused of opening fire on Kentucky highway | News, Sports, Jobs

Trees stand in wooded areas along Interstate 75 near Livingston, Kentucky, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, as police search for a suspect in a Saturday shooting along the interstate. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

LONDON, Ky. (AP) — The man suspected of opening fire on a Kentucky highway sent a text message promising “kill many people” less than 30 minutes before he shot and injured five people on Interstate 75, authorities said in an arrest warrant.

“I'm going to kill a lot of people. Well, at least I'm trying.” Joseph Couch, 32, wrote in the text message, according to the affidavit filed in court. In a separate text message, Couch wrote: “I’m going to kill myself after this” says the affidavit.

The Lexington Herald-Leader identified the woman Couch sent the text messages to as his ex-wife. The affidavit does not describe the relationship between Couch and the woman who received the text messages.

The affidavit from Captain Richard Dalrymple of the Laurel County Sheriff's Office states that before authorities received the first report of the shooting at around 5:30 p.m. Saturday, a telephone dispatcher in Laurel County received a call from a woman who told them Couch had sent her the text messages at 5:03 p.m.

In response to that call, police initiated a tracking function on Couch's cellphone, but the location was not transmitted until 6:53 p.m., the affidavit states, nearly 90 minutes after the highway shooting.

According to the affidavit obtained by The Associated Press, Couch is charged with five counts of attempted murder and first-degree assault.

On Sunday, law enforcement officers searched an area near where Couch's vehicle was found, overlooking I-75. There they found a green army-style duffel bag, ammunition and numerous shell casings, the affidavit states. A short distance away, they found a Colt AR-15 rifle with a scope mounted on the weapon and several extra magazines. The duffel bag had “Couch” handwritten with black marker.

Search crews have combed thousands of acres of rugged hills near London, a small town of about 8,000 residents about 75 miles south of Lexington.

Scottie Pennington, a spokesman for the London Post, said police officers from across the state are being called in to help with the search, which is focused on a remote area about 8 miles north of London. He described the extensive search area as “Walk through the jungle” with machetes, which are necessary for cutting through thickets.

“We have rock beds. We have sinkholes. We have caves.” Pennington said Monday. “We have culverts that run under the highway. We have streams and rivers and dense bushland.”

Authorities said they would continue their relentless pursuit in the dense forest area as residents worried about where the shooter might appear next.

“We won’t give up until we get our hands on him,” Said John Root, sheriff of Laurel County.

Rebecca Puryear told the Lexington Herald-Leader she was grateful to be alive after a gunshot wound to the chest severed her right arm as she walked home from dinner at Olive Garden with her husband and 4-year-old son.

Another bullet shattered into splinters when it hit the door of her Toyota Camry and also injured her left arm.

“I looked at my husband and said, 'What was that?' He said it was gunshots. I said, 'Oh my God!'” Puryear, 28, told the newspaper.

She was “flowing blood”, but her husband urged her to keep going. She stopped a mile up the road and her husband told her to take off her shirt and press it to the wound while he called 911.

Puryear is able to leave the hospital but will need to undergo surgery at a later date.

“This man wanted to kill and almost did it,” Puryear said, adding: “In an instant, you could no longer be here. I don't want anyone's family to go through this.”

Meanwhile, school districts across much of southeast Kentucky were closed Monday as the search for Couch continued into its third day.

Donna Hess, who lives 10 miles from the crime scene, agreed with the decision to close the school.

“I would be afraid that he would try to hijack the bus and take the children hostage,” said Hess, who has a first-grader and a preschooler. “I'm worried about everyone because they don't know where he is… We don't know what he's capable of right now.”

Couch was last known to live in Woodbine, a small community about 20 miles south of the crime scene. An employee at a gun store in London, Center Target Firearms, told authorities that Couch purchased an AR-15 and 1,000 rounds of ammunition hours before the shooting, the affidavit said.

Joe Arnold, the gun store's manager, declined to comment Monday, saying he did not want to hinder the investigation.

“We would welcome him being found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Arnold told AP.

Kentucky has few regulations regarding the purchase and carrying of firearms in public. The state's gun laws “are among the worst in the country” according to a report by Everytown For Gun Safety, a gun safety nonprofit organization.

Kentucky lawmakers repealed a law in 2019 that required a permit to carry a concealed weapon. The state also does not require a background check upon purchase.

Kentucky authorities said Monday that Couch was in the Army Reserve and not the National Guard, as officials had initially indicated. The U.S. Army said in a statement that Couch served as a combat engineer from 2013 to 2019. He was a private when he left and had no deployments.

Pennington said Monday that military experience does not make Couch a trained survivalist, while the plan is to wear Couch down.

“How long can you really survive?” said Pennington. “We hope he just leaves.”

Authorities said Couch fired 20 to 30 shots on Saturday, hitting 12 vehicles on the highway.

Christina DiNoto, who witnessed the shooting from a car ride, said Monday that the search was very stressful for her.

“Knowing he’s still at large – it makes me nervous, to be honest.” Said DiNoto.

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Associated Press reporters Tara Copp in Washington, Leah Willingham in Charleston, West Virginia, and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this story.