Search for suspect in Kentucky highway shooting enters third day

LONDON, Ky. (AP) — More than a dozen school districts across much of southeastern Kentucky were closed Monday as the grueling search for a gunman who opened fire on a highway over the weekend, wounding five people, dragged into a third day.

Search operations have been scouring the rugged, hilly area since Saturday evening, when a gunman began shooting at motorists on Interstate 75 near London, a small town of about 8,000 residents about 75 miles south of Lexington.

“We won't give up until we catch him,” Laurel County Sheriff John Root said Sunday evening.

Joseph A. Couch, 32, was named a suspect after authorities found his SUV on an access road near the crime scene. They later found a semi-automatic weapon nearby that was believed to have been used in the shooting, said Deputy Gilbert Acciardo, a sheriff's office spokesman.

Christina DiNoto, who witnessed the shooting on I-75 on Saturday, said Monday that the incident was very distressing to her.

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

According to DiNoto, an IT project manager, the shooting also triggered a new kind of fear. “For example, you have to be afraid to even drive on the highway.”

Authorities announced that they would continue to relentlessly pursue the shooter in the dense forest area as stress levels among residents and police officers remained high.

The Rockcastle County School Board, north of the crime scene, said in a social media message that it had decided to close classes “out of an abundance of caution” while the shooter remains at large.

In the south, schools in Knox County were also closed “as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of students and staff,” the district said in a social media message. Classes were also canceled at three regional college campuses.

Laurel County District Attorney Jodi L. Albright said Sunday evening that no tip from the public was too small and that Couch would be “brought to justice.”

However, Albright also acknowledged that the search area was very large: “If he is still alive, he could be there for a long time.”

Captain Richard Dalrymple of the Laurel County Sheriff's Office said authorities are doing everything they can.

“The longer we keep going, the more areas we clear and the more places we are sure he is not, the safer people will be,” he said. “And I'm confident that eventually we will figure it out and find him.”

London Post spokesman and state police master trooper Scottie Pennington said officers from across the state are being deployed to assist in the search, which is focused on a remote area about eight miles north of London. He described the extensive search area as “a walk through the jungle,” requiring machetes to cut through the undergrowth.

Couch was last known to live in Woodbine, a small community about 20 miles south of the crime scene. Authorities said he bought the gun and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition in London on Saturday morning.

Couch served in the National Guard for at least four years, Dalrymple said. The U.S. Army said in a statement that Couch was in the Army Reserve as a combat engineer from March 2013 to January 2019.

“At the end of his service, he was a private,” the army said. “He has no deployments.”

Authorities initially said nine vehicles were hit by gunfire, but later increased that number to 12. Some people did not realize their cars had been hit until they got home. The gunman fired 20 to 30 shots as he aimed at the highway on Saturday, they said.

DiNoto, 39, was driving through Kentucky with a friend on the way back to Houston after visiting relatives in Rochester, New York. When they heard a loud noise Saturday, they assumed a rock had hit their rear window. Her friend wondered if it was gunfire, but they quickly dismissed that possibility.

The driver of a truck in the adjacent lane slumped over and pulled over to the side of the road, but DiNoto assumed the cause was something like a blown tire. They saw emergency crews speeding by on the highway, but didn't realize there had been a shooting until the friend's father called 90 minutes later to check on them.

“We were in the middle of nowhere in Kentucky and we were like, 'What? Someone was standing on an overpass shooting us with an AR-15?'” DiNoto said.

Acciardo said authorities found Couch's abandoned vehicle on Saturday and an AR-15 rifle on Sunday in a wooded area near a highway where “he could have shot down on the highway.” A phone believed to belong to Couch was also found by officers, but the battery had been removed.

Specially trained officers were stationed at strategic locations in the forest throughout the night to prevent the shooter from slipping through, he said.

“We have to get him,” said Acciardo.

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