Authorities say the suspect still being sought for shooting and killing a motorist on a rural Kentucky highway on Monday was a National Guardsman who purchased an AR-type rifle and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition just hours before the initial attack.
Joseph Couch, 32, legally purchased the rifle and ammunition shortly before a 12-vehicle shooting occurred on Interstate 75 Saturday morning, striking five people and injuring two others. The Courier Journal reported.
“The perpetrator obtained the firearm at a local location here in London,” Laurel County Sheriff John Root said of the small city where multiple school districts were on lockdown and the investigation continued into its third day.
“We're not going to give up until we get him,” Root said late Sunday.
Authorities used drones and helicopters to search for Couch and later Sunday searched his home. Authorities said he had served in the National Guard's engineer battalion for at least four years but did not say when he left the service.
“We are fairly confident that this individual is the perpetrator,” emphasized Michael E. Stansberry, Special Agent in Charge of the Louisville FBI office.
“We have solid evidence. His car was at the scene. The gun he bought yesterday was also at the scene,” he added. The gun was an AR-style rifle believed to have been used to shoot down the gun from an elevated position.
Deputy Sheriff Gilbert Acciardo, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said the AR-15 was found in a wooded area near the highway “where the gunman was able to fire it off on the interstate.”
Police said a cellphone believed to belong to Couch was also recovered, but the battery had been removed.
The grueling search, which State Police Sergeant Scotty Pennington described as “a walk through a jungle,” involved troopers from across the state and machetes cutting through the brush.
Authorities said the gunman appears to have planned the shooting with the location in mind because it is remote and difficult to travel to.
With the gunman still at large, several school districts in the area canceled classes for Monday, and authorities are urging residents in the remote community about eight miles north of London to lock their doors, turn on their porch lights and monitor security cameras.
“We're not going to give up until we get him,” Root said Sunday night.
With post wire.
