Manhunt underway for suspect in Kentucky mass shooting near highway

A manhunt is underway for an “armed and dangerous” suspect in connection with a mass shooting Saturday night near a highway in Kentucky that seriously injured five people.

Deputies are searching for Joseph A. Couch, 32, in remote woods near the scene of the shooting on Interstate 75. Couch is described as white, 5 feet, 10 inches tall and 154 pounds, according to the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office, which shared a picture of him on Facebook.

Couch was initially referred to as a person of interest but was upgraded to a suspect Sunday afternoon after authorities processed his silver Toyota SUV found near the scene Saturday.

An AR-15 believed to be the weapon used in the shooting was found near the vehicle Sunday afternoon, the sheriff’s office said in a statement. It had been purchased legally at a local gun store Saturday morning, sheriff’s officials said Sunday.

Laurel County Sheriff John Root said there was nothing on the record in the suspect’s background that would have prevented the sale. “He went through all the proper paperwork,” Root said.

The weapon was found in “a location that you could have shot down upon the interstate from that wooded location,” Sheriff’s Deputy Gilbert Acciardo said. The semiautomatic rifle was being processed, he said.

A gun case and several charged magazines were also found in the SUV, Acciardo said. Sheriff’s Capt. Richard Dalrymple said during a news conference Sunday night that the suspect had about 1,000 rounds available, and authorities have recovered most of it.

The gunman was not in a vehicle at the time of the shooting and is believed to have acted alone, Acciardo said.

The gunman used three different perches along a ridge that looks down on the interstate to carry out the shooting on Saturday, the sheriff said.

“He was on a ledge about 30 feet down” from the top of the ridge, he said. The sheriff described it as similar to a ledge atop a cliff.

The locations were difficult to pinpoint amid forested land, rolling hills and ridges, and off-road trails, authorities said.

“That terrain is very unforgiving terrain — not a safe place to put people,” said Dalrymple, who’s leading the investigation.

A counter-sniper team kept watch on the ridge and the vast woods around it overnight and would do so again, Dalrymple said.

The search for the suspect was turned over to Kentucky State Police early Sunday evening because the relatively small sheriff’s office had “exhausted” its numbers, Root said.

The area of the shooting and subsequent law enforcement perimeter appear to be within the boundaries of Daniel Boone National Forest’s London Ranger District, according to a U.S. Forest Service map. “It’s a large area,” said Kentucky State Police Master Trooper Scottie Pennington said. “You’re basically walking through a jungle.”

Root said his office will continue to lead the investigation to determine motive and any other elements that may have contributed to the attack.

Couch served in the National Guard for at least four years, the captain said. He was a member of an engineer battalion, according to Dalrymple.

Couch is not a felon and has a relatively clean record that includes the March dismissal of a charge of making a terrorist threat and at least one alleged traffic violation, the state prosecutor for the region, Jackie Steele, said.

The number of vehicles struck in the attack grew to 12, authorities said Sunday night, because some travelers didn’t realize the vehicles they were in were struck until they arrived at their destinations hours away. As many as 20 to 30 rounds may have been fired, Dalrymple said.

Many of the vehicles were in both the north and southbound lanes of Interstate 75, the sheriff’s office said earlier, but some were stopped, parked or otherwise stationary, authorities noted later.

All five injured victims had been shot. Acciardo, who did not identify the victims, said Sunday that the most seriously injured include a person shot in the face, another shot in the arm and a third shot across the chest.

All are stable and expected to survive, he added.

London Mayor Randall Weddle said at a news conference Sunday afternoon that the victims were still being treated at hospitals. “Some of them are severe,” he said.

All victims are Kentucky residents, one of them from nearby Bell County. None are believed to be London or Laurel County residents, Weddle said.

A stretch of the interstate 8 miles north of the small city of London was temporarily shut down Saturday night amid the law enforcement response.

Acciardo said the shooter’s actions were “sniper-like” and warned residents to “stay vigilant.” It’s not clear what the shooter’s motive was; Acciardo called it “a random act.”

“This is not a road rage incident,” Acciardo said. He had previously said some victims were from out of state, though Weddle later said all are Kentucky residents.

Acciardo said Sunday the shooter’s level of planning is an important but unknown factor.

“We don’t know the level of planning,” he said. “What has he got with him? Depends on how committed he is.”

Authorities searching the area also found a cellphone believed to belong to the suspect. Its battery had been removed, thwarting efforts so far to obtain some of its data, Acciardo said.

“We can’t get nothing out of it,” he said.

Law enforcement officials believe the suspect has remained in the area based on information that can’t yet be revealed to the public, Acciardo said during a Sunday evening news conference.

That the suspect could have fled beyond the perimeter was “very possible, but not probable,” Acciardo said. Unless investigators receive a credible tip that places the suspect outside the perimeter, authorities at the scene are staying put, he said.

“We gotta get him,” Acciardo said. “He left his rifle behind. That’s huge. He has to have another weapon, right?”

Acciardo continued, “We don’t want him to cause another incident like this if we can prevent it.”

Root, the sheriff, later said authorities have information from outside sources indicating that the suspect is armed despite the discovery of the rifle.

“We’ve been told by some outside sources that he could be armed,” he said. “We don’t know … but we have been told, and that’s the way we’re going to treat it.”

Around 50 to 60 law enforcement officers searched for Couch until 3 a.m., and a smaller, more specialized group resumed the search around 9 a.m., Acciardo said earlier in the day.

The biggest danger, he said, is darkness. The woods where the suspect might be are surrounded, but the active search is likely to pause come nightfall, he said.

“He’s out there,” Acciardo said. “He’s behind a tree or under a rock cliff, something. We can’t be in the woods [at night] because it’s too dangerous.”

Acciardo said authorities are prepared should Couch show his face in darkness, noting that among the law enforcement officials on the ground are “SRT” members, an initialism for Special Response Team, indicating SWAT-style training. State police and several local departments have SRT personnel.

“It would be in his best interest to surrender and turn himself in,” Root said, so the suspect does “no more harm to himself or the residents or officers.”