Manhunt Underway In US After Kentucky Highway Shooting

AFP/APP

Washington: Five individuals were shot along a highway in southern Kentucky as police hunted for a suspect considered “armed and dangerous”, reported US media on Saturday.

Kentucky Mayor Randall Weddle told local media that in addition to the wounded, more individuals were hurt in a car accident caused by the shooting. The shooting did not appear to be random, he told the Louisville Courier-Journal, while a radio host reported that it was sparked “by two cars in an altercation.”

The suspected shooter opened fire onto Interstate 75 from a wooded area off the highway, Weddle said.

There were “multiple severe injuries” but no confirmed deaths, local news station WYMT reported.

Authorities were searching for Joseph Couch, 32, considered a person of interest in the shooting that temporarily closed I-75 in both directions due to the “active shooter situation.” “Consider armed and dangerous,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post. “Do not attempt to approach.”

Kentucky State Police Spokesman Scottie Pennington posted on Facebook that “we are urging people to stay inside.” He later told the Louisville Courier-Journal that “we have no clue where (the suspect) is at.”

Rural Laurel County is south of the city of Lexington along I-75, a major north-south artery cutting across the eastern half of the United States. Saturday’s incident comes after two students and two teachers were killed in a school shooting in Georgia.

A 14-year-old boy was charged with murder while his father, who had allegedly purchased the gun for him as a gift, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder.