(10 Sep 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
London, Kentucky — 9 September 2024
1. Wide shot of Interstate 75 in London
2. Interstate 75 near where shootings took place
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Brandi Campbell, London resident:
”It is scary, because we would’ve never thought this would happen so close to home. With us always seeing in the news about school shootings and all the other shootings that happen around, we would’ve never thought something like this would’ve happened so close to home. It’s terrifying.”
4. Laurel County sheriff’s cruiser
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Brandi Campbell, London resident:
“My kids have doctor’s appointments. So we locked doors and everything going to doctor’s appointments today. So, we was hungry, but we was a little on edge about whether we should or note (Reporter: Be down here?) Yes."
6. Tight on police cruiser
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Brandi Campbell, London resident:
“We go home and lights go off and we go upstairs and our doors stay locked.”
8. Exterior of elementary school closed since shooting
9. Wide of school
10. Main thoroughfare in London
STORYLINE:
The man suspected of opening fire on a highway in Kentucky sent a text message vowing to “kill a lot of people” less than 30 minutes before he shot and wounded five people on Interstate 75, authorities said in an arrest warrant.
“I’m going to kill a lot of people. Well try at least,” Joseph Couch, 32, wrote in the text message, according to the warrant affidavit filed in court. In a separate text message, Couch wrote, “I’ll kill myself afterwards,” the affidavit says.
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 texts.
The affidavit, written by Capt. Richard Dalrymple of the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office, said that before authorities received the first report of the shooting about 5:30 p.m. Saturday, a dispatcher in Laurel County got 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 tracker on Couch’s cellphone but the location wasn’t received until 6:53 p.m., the affidavit states, almost 90 minutes after the highway shooting.
The affidavit obtained by The Associated Press charges Couch with five counts each of criminal attempt to commit murder and first-degree assault.
On Sunday, law enforcement officers searched an area near where Couch’s vehicle was found, with a view of I-75. There, they found a green Army-style duffel bag, ammunition and numerous spent shell casings, the affidavit says. A short distance away, they found a Colt AR-15 rifle with a site mounted to the weapon and several additional magazines. The duffel bag had “Couch” hand-written in black marker.
Searchers have been combing thousands of acres in the rugged, hilly area near London, a small city of about 8,000 people about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Lexington.
State police Master Trooper Scottie Pennington, a spokesman for the London post, said troopers are being brought in from across the state to aid in the search focused on a remote area about 8 miles (13 kilometers) north of London. He described the extensive search area as “walking in a jungle” with machetes needed to cut through thickets.
“We have cliff beds. We have sinkholes. We have caves,” Pennington said Monday. “We have culverts that go under the interstate. We have creeks and rivers and the dense brush.”
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