Latest Kentucky Shooting Incident Fuels U.S. Shooting Trend
A manhunt is underway early Sunday as police search for a gunman in a rural area of southeastern Kentucky who is believed to have shot and injured seven people near Interstate 75.
The shooting on Saturday happened around 5:30 p.m. local time. The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office reported that “numerous people were shot” near the highway. The sheriff’s office said it was searching for a person of interest in the shooting.
The shooting on Saturday occurred just three days after a Georgia school shooting that killed four people.
Deputy Gilbert Acciardo, a spokesperson for the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office, said that when troopers arrived at the scene in London, a small city of about 8,000 located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Lexington, they found numerous vehicles on the side of the highway at Exit 49.
Five people were shot, and all were in stable condition early Sunday, although some of the victims had “very serious” injuries, including one person who was shot in the face, according to local authorities. London Mayor Randall Weddle said in an earlier Facebook video that up to seven people were injured, but not all of them from gunshots—some due to car crashes.
“When our first two units got to the scene, they said it was a madhouse: people on the sides of the road, emergency flashers going, bullet holes, windows shot out, nine vehicles shot. Can you imagine that? Just chaotic,” Acciardo said Sunday during a news conference.
The closed interstate has since reopened in both northbound and southbound directions.
