Search for suspect in Kentucky highway shooting ends with discovery of body believed to be his

LONDON, Ky. (AP) — An arrest warrant says the man who opened fire on a Kentucky highway vowed to “kill a lot of people” before he shot and wounded five people. The affidavit quotes a text message that police say Couch sent to a woman 30 minutes before he opened fire Saturday (Sept. 7, 2024) on Interstate 75. The affidavit quoted a separate text in which Couch said he would kill himself after the shooting. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies across southeastern Kentucky were still trying to apprehend Couch Monday and were searching in dense woods. Area schools have closed, while residents have locked their doors and kept their children inside.

LONDON, Ky. (AP) — 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 (Sept. 7, 2024), a dispatcher in Laurel County received 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 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, the day after the shooting, law enforcement officers searched an area near the location 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 the rugged, hilly near London, a small city of about 8,000 people about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Lexington. Authorities vowed to keep up their relentless pursuit in the densely wooded area as local residents worried about where the shooter might turn up next.

“We’re not going to quit until we do lay hands on him,” Laurel County Sheriff John Root said, with the search area covering thousands of acres (hectares).

Christina DiNoto, who witnessed the shooting Saturday while driving on I-75, said Monday that it weighed heavily on her mind.

“To know that he’s still at large — that makes me nervous, honestly,” she said.

DiNoto, an IT project manager, said the shooting also unlocked a new kind of fear, “like you have to be scared to even just drive on the highways.”

Meanwhile, more than a dozen school districts shut down Monday across a wide swath of southeastern Kentucky as the grueling search for Couch stretched into a third day.

Donna Hess, who lives 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the shooting scene in rural Laurel County, agreed with the decision to close schools there. Both of her children, a first grader and preschooler, normally take the bus.

“I’d be afraid he’d try to hijack the bus and take the kids as hostages,” Hess said. “I’m worried about everybody because they don’t know where he’s at. I’m hoping they catch him soon. We don’t know what he’s capable of right now.”

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

“The longer we continue, and the more area we clear and the more places we are sure he is not, the safer people are going to be,” he said. “And I’m confident eventually we’ll figure it out and we’ll find him.”

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.

Couch most recently lived in Woodbine, a small community about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of the shooting scene. Authorities said he purchased the weapon and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition Saturday morning in London.

Kentucky has few regulations on purchasing guns and carrying them in public. The state’s gun laws “are among the worst in the country” according to a report by Everytown For Gun Safety, a gun safety nonprofit group.

A man who fatally shot five co-workers at a Louisville bank in 2023 wrote in his journal that he was surprised he could buy an AR-15 and 120 rounds in less than an hour. He wrote that it was “so easy” despite his history of mental illness.

Kentucky legislators repealed a law in 2019 that required a permit for carrying a concealed weapon. The state also does not require a background check at the point of purchase.

The U.S. Army said in a statement that Couch was in the Army Reserve from March 2013 to January 2019 as a combat engineer who was a private when he left and had no deployments.

Authorities said the shooter fired 20 to 30 rounds, striking 12 vehicles on the interstate Saturday.

DiNoto, 39, was driving through Kentucky with a friend on her way back to Houston after visiting relatives in Rochester, New York, when they heard a loud noise Saturday and assumed a rock had hit her back windshield. Her friend wondered whether it was gunshots, but they quickly dismissed the possibility.

The driver of a truck in the next lane slumped over and pulled to the side of the road, but DiNoto assumed the cause was something like a tire blowout. They saw first responders barreling down the highway but didn’t realize there’d been a shooting until the friend’s dad called to check on them 90 minutes later.

“We were in the middle of nowhere, Kentucky, and it was just like, what? Somebody was on an overpass shooting AR-15 at us?” DiNoto said.