Estatehere.com

Officials reallocating resources from forest to community as strategy shifts in manhunt for I-75 shooter

Posted on 09/17/2024

11 days ago, an act of violence and evil occurred where an individual believed to be Joseph Couch opened fire on interstate 75 with the intent to kill as many people as possible. But evil did not prevail that day because our incredible local dispatchers and first responders rushed to the scene, transporting five individuals to local hospitals. There are health care, heroes took action and they saved lives by the grace of God and the skilled response of so many Joseph Couch failed and no one was killed in this incident immediately after the shooting, local and state law enforcement along with emergency intelligence and other agencies surged to the scene and began *** manhunt. *** command post was quickly established on the eastern side of the interstate. And initial sweeps of the area were conducted. The initial investigation identified *** lone subject. It located an abandoned assault rifle ammunition and *** vehicle that was located with camping gear and other evidence. After the initial sweep did not locate the subject. *** more formal command post was established. The post included federal state and local agencies. Commissioner Burnett is going to recognize each of them here. Today, we are grateful for every single one of them. Your work has been significant. It's been important and we appreciate each and every agency that's participated. Hundreds of law enforcement officers were at the scene and have participated in the manhunt KSP used Flir technology to pick up heat signatures while ground teams searched parts of the dense forest. Black hawk helicopters were used to see through the canopy and to get better views. Drone technology was also used as well as four types of K nine units. Ground teams were assisted by *** TV, S and U TV S to help with the search. And to date, I believe the number is 28,000 acres of forests have been searched during all these activities, cameras were placed across the forest to detect movement, those are being monitored up to and including today while the manhunt continued, two other missions were being carried out. First law enforcement was following up and pursuing any local leads about the gunman's location, including any tip that would suggest he was mobile or outside of the forest. The second mission that was occurring was co ordination of efforts to increase law enforcement presence in the community to provide additional safety and assurance to your neighbors to our citizens as they work to transition back to day to day life in those efforts. Rock Castle and Whitley County schools have resumed classes with additional local and state law enforcement presence. Many other districts came back today or yesterday, we're working with each of the districts to make sure we can accomplish that same goal. The goal of all of these activities and how we have balanced those missions has always been about what provides the best public safety in the beginning. The best way to provide safety was to locate most of our assets in the manhunt, hoping to find him to neutralize the threat as that has become less and less likely over the past several days, our best plan now is to augment law enforcement in this community to where our people are. In other words, as the odds of finding the individual in the forests are less the deployment of our resources into the community now provides *** better public safety outcome, *** better deterrent than simply continuing the manhunt at its current levels. So beginning this afternoon, we'll be begin transitioning state and local law enforcement agencies from *** manhunt to *** larger presence in this community and the surrounding communities. The search will continue through the monitoring of cameras and the use of aircraft where available. And again, these groups behind me will continue to follow up all credible leads about his whereabouts and continue to investigate all of them. In other words, all three missions will continue. But today, we're announcing that we are reallocating resources because we believe it is necessary now to do so to provide for the best safety outcomes for our citizens. The plan is fully supported by myself, Mayor Weddle, Commissioner Burnett, Sheriff Root and Chief Holland. We stand united in this approach. We know it's the right decision and our commitment is to protect the people of this region to our citizens. We have and we will continue to stand with you to provide the resources to ensure your safety. We will not live our lives in fear. We will move forward together and yes, we will get through this together before I turn it over to Commissioner Burnett. I also want to note that we had tragic news for our commonwealth that we heard last night when Russell County sheriff, Deputy Josh Phillips was killed in the line of duty. Britney and I are praying for his family for all of our law enforcement community and for the entire Russell County community. It also underscores why this group has been as careful as it can in this search in this forest to make sure that an event in an incident where Joseph Couch was not able to take lives during the interstate shooting has not resulted in the loss of life in the search. So I want to close by saying I'm very proud of the work that's been done by all these agencies. They have done their best. They have used the best technology that's out there. They brought in every resource, federal state and local. But on day 11, we know that bringing the boots on the ground from the forest into the communities is going to give the best reassurance to our citizens that if he's still out there, we are right here with you where you go to school, where you go to church in the communities with *** significant, uh, significantly enhanced presence, uh, ready to protect our citizens, making the very best decisions we can to ensure their safety. Now I'll turn it over to Commissioner Burnett. Thank you, Governor. Good afternoon. Today does mark the 11th day of the manhunt for Joseph Couch. I'd like to report that we do not have any specific evidence or any details that has led us any closer to his apprehension at this time. You know, since this manhunt has begun KSP, we've had over 129 sworn and civilian personnel dedicated to this mission. We've also had 13 other agencies. We've had the Federal Bureau of Investigations. We've had the US Marshal Service, we've had *** US Forest Service. We've had Kentucky Department, Fish and Wildlife. We've had *** Laurel County. So London PD, London, Search and Rescue and other entities and *** lot of support from uh, the communities that is aided the Kentucky State police in this manhunt. You know, even with these other 13 or these other agencies that I've discussed, you know, they've dedicated over 90 personnels as well. So they've been over 230 personnel dedicated to this manhunt and apprehending Mr Couch, you know, but due to the lack of discoverable evidence out in the Daniel Boone National Forest with the search area there, we feel like we were best tailor our efforts to move from that search in that area out in our communities and in our local communities, as well as surrounding areas. We're gonna adjust our posture. Only thing we're doing is reallocating our assets to those. And the reason why is because we've had over 400 tips that have come in for us to follow up on his apprehension. The majority of those are outside of the National Forest. So we feel like we'll be better off to protect our communities by moving those personnel. And as the governor said, we have already with all of our partners in this search. We've searched over 28,000 acres there in the National Forest, but now we're planning to move our boots on the ground and our resources out of that area out into the community. As I said, not *** drawdown again, not *** draw down just reallocation of those assets. You know, this will include moving patrols, increased moving patrols. You'll see troopers, deputies, officers in these areas searching these roadways in case there's *** sighting will also be looking to support our superintendents. We've, we've been in consistent discussion with those superintendents uh in the area in the general area. You know, we will help them with increased security at their schools, increased security on bus routes, sporting events, other things, but we've worked with planning for several days with, with several and uh we'll continue to do that as we move forward. We'll also be utilizing uh troopers from other posts. We'll be using our criminal interdiction team. We'll be using commercial vehicle enforcement officers from regions across the state to be able to come in and to assist with this effort as well. You know, at this point, the best way we can prioritize safety of our families and communities is by this plan that we've had and we've had consistent discussions with CH with FBI and all of our other partners. This is the best plan that we have going forward. We have looked at every possible scenario. We've looked at every piece of equipment, technology that we can utilize and this from what we have discovered so far in this search, this is the best plan moving forward, you know, already, uh you know, with these 400 tips, we look for those to expand and then we welcome those tips to come in. Please submit those to KSP for us to be able to follow up on as well as uh uh Laurel County Sheriff's Department and London PD was also one of our partners that I failed to mention there earlier. But however, we'll still have resources to be able to rapidly deploy back in the Daniel Boone National Force. If there's *** sighting of Mr Couch, we will be able to transition and have assets to be able to go and investigate that information that comes in. You know, the safety of our community is our number one priority and especially our schools and churches and with our partnerships that we have with everybody up here on this stage and this shows the unity and how this is *** unified concept going forward. Uh We do feel like we'll be able to bring this to *** successful conclusion one day, whatever status that uh Mr Couch may be in at this time. But I would like to take *** moment to personally thank all of our KSP employees that have donated so much time uh away from their families as well as our, all of our partner agencies. They're the same, you know, they've been there 1415, 16 hours *** day for this effort. So I would like to personally thank all those. Thank you. Sure. Good evening. Um I'm so pleased with the involvement that we've had with the governor's office. Uh when he was here, he's been here numerous times and he's used phrases such as uh no one commonwealth. He used phrases as team Kentucky and folks. I wanna tell you that's exactly what this has been. This is *** team effort. This is not one agency, this is not one individual, this has been *** team from dispatchers, the endless service to rescue workers to law enforcement. Uh Everyone has contributed and this, I just really appreciate it more than you guys could ever know. Uh, everyone has worked hand in hand in this. Uh, it's been such *** pleasure. Everything's when, if I could, you know, people, if you could change anything, would you change anything? No, I think the job has been done. It's been done to perfection and very pleased with all the assets that we've had. Uh, uh, it's just really went good. Uh, you know, I was thinking this morning, you know, this is, uh, I'm the sheriff here in Laurel County. That's one county. Uh, the governor has kept contact with me. He's responsible for 100 and 20 counties. It just been, it's been *** pleasure to work with you governor and on behalf of myself and the residents of this county, we wanna thank you. Uh, I also wanna thank my county judge who is in attendance here today. He's kept contact with me and, uh, has, uh, offered, uh, anything that we need as *** sheriff's office. Uh, it's been *** pleasure to work with the judge and also my friend, uh, the mayor of London here, Randall Weddle. Uh, these individuals I feel have went above and beyond and they feel the same way I do. It's the residents that we're responsible for and, uh, whatever needs to be done. We've got the ok to go ahead and do it. And I thank you guys for that. Uh, our number one priority has been the safety of our residents since day one and that will continue to be so until, uh, Mr Couch is brought, is apprehended and brought into custody. Uh, we will, uh, commit our times, uh, on, on apprehension of him. Um, this has been an impact on our county. This is definitely not the normal Laurel County that we're used to. It's been chaotic. They've been feared *** lot of fear, school closings. And with that said, I'll echo as, uh, Commissioner Burnett said, the superintendents in this county, Miss Greebel, uh, Miss Jones has been *** pleasure to work with. They've kept with us. Uh, they're very concerned with the Children. Uh, I spoke with Commissioner Burnett, uh, yesterday evening about the ground resources that we'd be using, uh, pulling some of our resources out of the woods and we will increase patrols at the schools on the bus routes. And also this is gonna be good as, uh, myself and the commissioner talked yesterday. As far as the county, we understand, there's *** lot of fear. They may be some, uh, uh, older, older people, uh, single mothers or whatever. So you'll see an increase in patrol efforts throughout the county. And, uh, I wanna thank, uh, the commissioner for that, for providing that. Um, also want to thank each agency that's represented on the stage. I mean, we can stand here and talk about the amount of work and the technology that's utilized and *** lot of people don't understand, but I'm telling you, everyone has went above and beyond. Um, they've been pulled away from their families and I just personally, as *** sheriff here in this county, I wanna thank each and every one for what you've done and it will never be for, uh, forgotten. I want everyone to know that this is still an open and active investigation. Uh, we will work just as hard continuing down this path as we have from day one. We will not rest until uh Mr Couch is brought into custody and he'll have to face the charges for the things that he's done here in this county. Uh We want to continue to receive tips from the public. The community has just been outstanding. Um Like I said, over 400 tips, uh They've come in county out of county, but I'm proud to say that each one of those have been followed up and we do appreciate them. But at this point, it's no reveal that we found Mr Couch. So I wanna thank you and I also want uh us to remember these victims of this crime. Let's keep them in our prayers. And I wanna thank the media. I wanna thank you guys for keeping the people informed. And uh like I say, uh I wanna thank each entity. I just can't uh phrase that enough for the help that we've had in this county. We've called upon them and they brought every resource they've had Uh But I want everyone to know that the residents of this county, our number one priority is the safety of the residents and our Children in this county. Thank you. We are married on behalf of the city of London. We just want to thank all the agencies that's been involved in this. Uh, you know, even the volunteers that brought food out, uh to the command site. It's been an absolutely amazing the amount of love that has been poured into this, this county from other counties to other cities. Uh We can't thank them enough. And there is some folks that I would also like to highlight in this, the London Laurel County rescue squad that's been doing the mapping service for this entire investigation manhunt on the ground. You know, these guys are volunteers and they've spent long hours uh helping them, assist them. And, you know, the city is de deeply grateful for the this squad and all that they do in this community. Uh I would like for while we're here for uh assistant Chief Bobby Day to come and talk about the protection of the city, what the city police is doing and what we expect out of them. Thank you, mayor guys. My name is Bobby Day. I'm *** major with the uh London Police Department. The London Police Department will continue to support the Kentucky State Police Laurel County Sheriff's Office with the investigation as well as any search pursuant to any credible leads or anything we have moving forward. Uh as has already been said here, you know, our department has as, as everybody else have utilized ***, all the equipment we've got and will continue to utilize any and all resources we have to hopefully bring this, this to *** uh uh *** resolution and to apprehend couch uh yesterday myself along with the uh state police and the uh sheriff's office, met with Laurel County school officials because today was gonna start, uh, students first day of, of in uh, in person training, in person learning. So, uh, we try to figure out how law enforcement could support that. So, one of the things we did as *** result today, you saw *** strong presence of law enforcement officers on every campus. You'll continue to see saturated patrols on campus school grounds as well as bus routes and, and anything we can do to, to help with that. But one thing I wanted to do and I know that, uh, the, it's already been Governor's already, we, we've, we've already bragged on the governor here, but because of the governor and because of House Bill 63 Laurel County has *** armed certified law enforcement officer in every school in this district. That's 18 schools. They not only have one per school, they've got *** couple on, on *** couple of the campuses and we thank you for that, sir, because that's, uh, you know, our schools are *** very safe place, especially here in, in, in Laurel County. In addition to the uh to the schools, we're also uh doing everything we can to provide extra extra patrol at daycares, uh, hospitals, residents businesses, you got *** business, you got *** resident, you want some extra patrol. You can call us London Police Department. You can call the state police. You call the sheriff's office. We'd be more than happy to come out and do that. Uh, I just extend *** thank you to everybody that's already been thanked up here as opposed to being redundant, but also continue to urge citizens to call London Laurel 911, as well as the Kentucky State Police. You get *** lead, you get *** tip by all means, call in. Let us know we'll do our best to follow up on this. These efforts are going to allow us to be able to do more of that and concentrate our efforts and focus more on that as well. Thank you anyone else? Ok. Um, good afternoon Guns. My, my name is Jeremy Honecker. I'm not much of *** public speaker. I apologize in advance, but, uh, I just want to thank everybody that, uh, um, you know, for, that's part of the city, Central Kentucky fugitive task force. Uh, we've been, uh, able to, you know, kind of help out with, uh, uh, the investigative efforts in trying to locate, uh, Mr Couch and as we kind of transfer um from the rap, the, the advancing manhunt. Uh That's kind of what we call it. We call rap, advancing manhunt into the investigative aspect. Um You know, we're gonna continue to provide resources from our, uh central Kentucky fugitive task force um to Laurel County and, and, and the state's police. Um, London PD, um, wanted to try to, uh, locate and apprehend uh, uh, Mr Couch. Thank you. Yes, please. Good afternoon. My name is Quincy Barnett. I'm the assistant special agent in charge with the FBI uh Louisville field office located uh in Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky responsibility over the state of Kentucky uh with offices uh throughout the state. I wanted to be noted and everyone's already expressed gratitude to everyone uh being able to be *** part of this investigation uh as uh in, in the, in the team that we were to, to come together with uh was ***, *** huge benefit. I want to be noted that the FBI, we stand strong, we stand united with our partner. Um And this was an effort for that. Uh Our London uh office is the office, uh the personnel that responded on the, on the sixth uh this initially, right? The FBI we are here, although we're transitioning from uh the manhunt and those resources, we are moving toward the fugitive investigation, that investigation will remain uh with our headed out of our London office here. Uh These people live in this community, they are part of this community. We all wanna continue to work closely with our partners with KSP uh with Laurel County as well. Move for this uh this investigation and all of the resources of the FBI that have been on display and been utilized up until this point or continue to be available. Uh And FBI, we will follow up on any and all available uh leads and tips. So thank everyone. Thank the partnerships that we've got. I wanna thank the community for your trust that you have in us. I wanna thank everyone for continue to remain vigilant. Thank you. Thank you. All right to, to, to summarize and then we'll open it up for questions. You've heard the same thing from everyone. The number one goal is public safety and how to provide that public safety is different on day one than on day 11, on day 11. We know that we need to bring our boots on the ground from the forest to our people and by bringing those boots on the ground to our people and saturating this and the surrounding communities with additional law enforcement, we will give the best security to our people that they are safe and that they can go about their daily lives that we don't live in fear that we move forward because we got *** lot of heroes represented by the agencies that are up here that are going to be in our communities, making sure that we're safe with that. We'll open it up to questions. Well, we don't have *** conclusion. We have an individual that committed *** horrific act of evil that tried to kill numerous people and we have not located him or brought the investigation to *** close and we know that people are scared and that law enforcement here for our safety and when they're around, we feel better because we know they're trained and that they care. And so by, by bringing the, the boots on the ground from the forest where there is now *** very low probability that we will discover anything else to the community. Uh Again, we provide the best deterrence, the best safety. And again, the, the goal is for the community, even with it being kind of scary to get back to day to day life. And the best way we make that transition is *** saturation or even an over saturation of law enforcement saying we're here, uh we're gonna be here and we're gonna make sure you're safe. So, so local, local law enforcement is, is going to be in their communities KSP. And the other agencies that have broader jurisdictions are working uh with local law enforcement, with superintendents, with um uh other leaders to, to make sure we're meeting their needs. It, it's like the, the first superintendent we worked with was Rock Castle. Uh They'd already talked to their local law enforcement and felt good about their campuses but needed extra help on their bus routes. And so the, the question there was how we augment, how we come in where we pull resources to make sure we could cover those bus routes. And so uh having flexibility and having this many boots on the ground, we can meet the needs of each community that may be uh just *** little bit different day. You talked about the plan this morning. Uh How do you feel that it went with the first day going back to school? Are there any tweaks that you think you'll be needing to make? No, I was, I was there. Everybody with our department from the, uh, chief down was at ***, at *** school or at schools. I thought it went great. I, we don't have the numbers yet. Well, hopefully we, we're trying to get those as far as what the absentee rate was. So we'll have that for you and hopefully we'll have that soon. But, uh, every, everything went really smooth. You know, we had *** lot of parents that I think the, uh, uh, the, the state police, the sheriff's office as well as the, uh, the London Police Department. We all, you know, *** lot of the parents were very thankful that we were there, but I thought it went, I thought it went very smooth and it seemed that the, uh, normalcy as we've spoken about earlier seemed to come back in *** little bit of normalcy back by starting again today. Is there some sort of thread in there that you can follow that says, yeah, we need to come out of the forest there, something harm in that. Well, just the majority of those were in communities kind of in Laurel County and Rock Castle County, they weren't necessarily in the Daniel Boone National Forest. So that's why that we want limited information and what we discovered in the forest versus these tips and then where our communities are, that's why we wanted to transition from there and just put more resources in those communities where those tips come in. I think they were, you know, we, we, well, we have both, we've had some that we felt like were credible and we investigate them, we investigate them to the end and we turned out that they, there were no uh investigative uh value to those, but we take every tip that comes in as *** value until we research it out, investigate it to the end. So do we still believe he's alive? Are we still looking for him to find him alive or, you know, it's been 11 days. You know, that's, that's, that's *** possibility. We are looking e either status, whether he's deceased or he's still alive, but we will continue efforts based on what investigative leads and evidence that we have coming in. I just, I just add, thank you. Thank you, Commissioner that with the evidence right now. I don't think you can definitively say he's still in the forest, he's outside of the forest or that he's still alive. And so what do you do when, when that's the instance you bring as much of the public safety personnel to the public uh to make sure that uh we are prepared uh regardless of which of the three of those is, is true. Um And remember the manhunt continues just through different means, the deployment of *** lot of cameras should help us detect movement within the forest. If he is still there, aircraft when available will still be used. It's just changing the way we're going about that piece and putting more of our sworn personnel, our uniformed law enforcement in the community so that if he's still out there, he knows he shouldn't come anywhere near our people because he fine law enforcement officers are ready for turn that over to our, our locals. But I would say at this point, we're, we're still conducting *** manhunt in the Daniel Boone National Forest and I'd ask everybody to be really careful. Um I, I don't, this is me personally as *** dad. Um I'm not sure I would want my family camping in that area right now, especially as law enforcement is still there. If your movement is picked up by the cameras that could trigger *** law enforcement response, I would continue to stay out of the area to help with this investigation. Anybody want to add to that sheriff of Greece must be. Right. It's been 11 days. This gentleman is, is, is out in the wilder. Does anything indicate that he has some kind of survival instincts? I mean, *** survival training or anything? You know, that, that he's able to, you know, I don't, I, I think at this point there, there isn't any evidence of, of special skills, uh, certainly, uh, some equipment was found in his car and, and not with him. Uh So again, you know, what we're trying to do with the evidence that desert does not exist is to make sure we're allocating the sworn personnel in the best way to protect our, our people. This is rugged terrain. If he is still there alive or deceased, the odds of finding him now are, are so much lower than on day one. It means that now the best equation if you will, that that gets to public safety about where we put people is to bring them back into the community and have that augmented law enforcement presence. Are you able to say when the last bit of evidence was found that would indicate he is still alive? I think that's an ongoing investigation that, that they continue to follow up on, on any, any pieces of evidence. I mean, this is gone from, this is pretty much the last thing the community wants to hear. They want to hear that the search is narrowing, not getting wider why should people feel safe to go back to normal? I know the extra patrols are there. But, I mean, that's the complete inverse of what people are wanting to hear on day 11. Well, certainly what people want to hear is the person that has been apprehended and the threat has been completely removed. But as the odds of that are lower, I want them to know that we're making good decisions that we are taking the resources that we have and putting them closer to them. So if you're *** member of this community and it's day 11, what I tell you is we're going to have more law enforcement around you uh than you've seen in *** long time. We want you to be able to go back to your day to day lives even though this is not *** satisfying resolution and the investigation continues. But we're doing everything we can through federal state and local resources to, to surround you as much as we can uh with folks who have dedicated their lives to protecting you. Um And, and again, it's, it's, it was scary. It continues to be scary. But sadly, we have scary things that are happening across this country on *** regular basis. We can't live our lives in fear and we believe this is the best step to help members of the community to not have to live their lives in fear. Let me do this one and then I'll come back will the Paracet are made in the course or is that being taken out as well that uh the actual command post there will be removed. But the only thing we're doing, we're just putting investigative assets at our post, they will be at Laurel County. So we're just basically still have those resources. They're just being brought out from there and being put at the, at the post in those locations. And again, we'll still have *** reaction team that we can be able to deploy if we were to have *** spotting of Mr Couch there in that area. Right now, I know law enforcement will remain in the forest unless, well, we'll still have *** moving patrol, saturation patrols, what we can in those areas. We'll also have our aircraft, whether it be manned and unmanned as well as surveillance cameras as well. So there's still *** multitude of things that we're still investigating and keep an eye on in the National Force there in case uh Mr Couch is still in that location. This question is for the governor, governor of one year ago in Pennsylvania. There was *** prison escapee by the name of Danello Cavalcante. He was outdoors in Pennsylvania. Um Border patrol, war tech, use their services and their their devices to capture, help capture *** cone as border as the state of Kentucky utilized border patrol or border tax in finding Joseph. I'll turn that over to the, to the commissioner to answer. But I, but I will say that the amount of different technology that's been brought in by the amount of federal and state agencies, I believe it was the FBI that helped us with the bloodhounds, uh under *** contract that we don't have, uh, *** unit, most states don't. And so we've been able to bring in resources and expertise that, that aren't directly housed uh in Kentucky. When you look at the four different types of canines from them to the cadaver dogs, to even the digital uh uh dogs, the two of which we have in the state to look for any other phones and, and other equipment that might be out there. I think the amount of technology, air support drones, cameras that we've brought in have, have, have been the height of, of technology. But, but for that specific question, I turn it over to the commissioner, uh, to answer your question. Yes, we were in contact with border patrol. We did reach out to them and we went through what scenario that we have here, you know, what actions that we have taken, what resources we have, what equipment we have, what the terrain is and then talking with their leadership ones, we talked with, they basically, we've done everything that they would do based on what we were encountering. We anticipate having these additional until we, we still have credible tips and we will still be going. Uh that's been, we will still, we want the community to feel safe and that's what we're going to do and we will still with these movement patrols and whatever information we have, we may have to tailor those efforts. But for there's no reason for us to be able to change what our current posture is from what we've talked about here today in the near future. And let me, let me just add to that, just like today, we're talking about *** reallocation of resources. We'll come forward and talk if, if uh if there's any change uh from here, this is day one of, of this, this reallocation. And so we wanna see how many tips come in. Uh We wanna see again how the, the the community feels, how we all adapt if we have more information on Mr Couch as it as it goes forward. So uh we'll continue to provide updates, but I can tell you with this reallocation and it is *** reallocation, not *** reduction. Uh That's how we're going forward. And if any change is made in those numbers, we'll, we'll report it to you. We used the National Guard uh specifically with the Black Hawk helicopters with uh also members of the National Guard that had been in combat uh in case that, that, that was the case the Black Hawk helicopters were helpful um because they could push the dense uh forest canopy aside, we could get *** better look. I mean, the really sad news last night was that if he's still out there, still armed and, and wanting to, to harm people in the forest, it was our law enforcement, our National Guard that was out there. And so, uh, the way that they went about this, prioritizing safety of everybody involved was just so important and, and all of their officers, all of their sheriff's deputies, all of their agents are still with us today having done their very best but going home to their families, I think it's really important at the end of this, at the very end of this, that the story closes with Joseph Couch, not having killed anyone. Sure. He tried, he committed an act of, of evil, but between our first responders between law enforcement, we prevented him from succeeding. I think that's important and it would be an important example for anyone else who ever considers doing something, uh, this evil and this terrible again that we will do everything we can to stop you. All right. We take one more. I don't have that yet. *** lot of this is using our existing resources and, and moving them. Uh, but, uh, but we'll, we'll see if, if, if we can calculate that. But the, the thing that I've seen around Kentucky is different groups, volunteering, wanting to help. And I want to thank all of our, our federal and other partners that are here, fish and wildlife chipping in as, as Well, when team Kentucky faces *** threat, we all come together that could be after *** tornado after *** flood. It certainly happened after the shooting from volunteer groups that do their jobs so well to other agencies that say we have the training to help. It's been really special to see how everyone has done, uh, their very best so to close out. Um, we are still here. We're just making sure we're bringing, uh more of our law enforcement to the people to ensure public safety and we're going to continue until everybody feels safe. We believe everybody is safe. Uh Again, we're not going anywhere. We're just gonna make sure we have this reallocation done right, to protect this and the surrounding communities. Thank you all very much.

GET LOCAL BREAKING NEWS ALERTS

The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox.

Your Email Address

Privacy Notice

Advertisement

Officials reallocating resources from forest to community as strategy shifts in manhunt for I-75 shooter

The search for a man suspected of a shooting along Interstate 75 in Laurel County, Kentucky is moving away from the Daniel Boone National Forest and into the community, Gov. Andy Beshear and local law enforcement agencies announced Tuesday. Tuesday marks the 11th day of the search for Joseph Couch, the man believed to have pulled the trigger in the shooting that sent five people to the hospital.To hear the full remarks from Gov. Beshear and Laurel County officials, see the video player at the top of this story."In the beginning, the best way to provide safety was to locate most of our assets in the manhunt, hoping to find and neutralize the threat," Beshear said in his opening statement, announcing the shift in strategy. "As that has become less and less likely over the past several days, our best plan now is to augment law enforcement in this community to where our people are."In other words, as odds of finding the individual in the forest are less, the deployment of our resources into the community now provides a better public safety outcome - a better deterrent - than simply continuing the manhunt at it's current levels," the governor said.Beshear said the shift in strategy is effective Tuesday, law enforcement will be placed in Laurel, Rockcastle and Whitley county communities "We are reallocating resources because we believe it is necessary now to do so to provide for the best safety outcomes for our citizens," explained Beshear. "The number one goal is public safety. How to provide that public safety is different on day one than it is on day 11."The shift in strategy comes after 28,000 acres of the Daniel Boone National Forest have been searched by local, state and federal officials. Local law enforcement said they have received over 400 tips, both from people who live in and out of Laurel County, and each tip had been investigated, but none have led officials to Couch's whereabouts.Rockcastle and Whitley County schools have resumed classes. Assistant Police Chief Bobby Day, with the London police department, said due to Kentucky's HB 63, there is at least one armed officer in each of Laurel County's 18 schools, with some having multiple.Day added that there was "strong presence" of law enforcement on campus and said there will continue to be a saturated presence of officers on school grounds and bus routes."We don't have a conclusion. We have an individual who committed an act of evil. We have not located him or brought the investigation to a close. We know people are scared...people feel better when police are there." While resources are moving out of the forest, the governor made clear that a manhunt is still being conducted as the search for Couch continues."We're still conducting a manhunt in the Daniel Boone National Forest. We're asking everyone to be careful. I would continue to stay out of the area," he said.

The search for a man suspected of a shooting along Interstate 75 in Laurel County, Kentucky is moving away from the Daniel Boone National Forest and into the community, Gov. Andy Beshear and local law enforcement agencies announced Tuesday.

Tuesday marks the 11th day of the search for Joseph Couch, the man believed to have pulled the trigger in the shooting that sent five people to the hospital.

Advertisement

To hear the full remarks from Gov. Beshear and Laurel County officials, see the video player at the top of this story.

"In the beginning, the best way to provide safety was to locate most of our assets in the manhunt, hoping to find [Couch] and neutralize the threat," Beshear said in his opening statement, announcing the shift in strategy. "As that has become less and less likely over the past several days, our best plan now is to augment law enforcement in this community to where our people are.

"In other words, as odds of finding the individual in the forest are less, the deployment of our resources into the community now provides a better public safety outcome - a better deterrent - than simply continuing the manhunt at it's current levels," the governor said.

Beshear said the shift in strategy is effective Tuesday, law enforcement will be placed in Laurel, Rockcastle and Whitley county communities

"We are reallocating resources because we believe it is necessary now to do so to provide for the best safety outcomes for our citizens," explained Beshear. "The number one goal is public safety. How to provide that public safety is different on day one than it is on day 11."

The shift in strategy comes after 28,000 acres of the Daniel Boone National Forest have been searched by local, state and federal officials.

Local law enforcement said they have received over 400 tips, both from people who live in and out of Laurel County, and each tip had been investigated, but none have led officials to Couch's whereabouts.

Rockcastle and Whitley County schools have resumed classes. Assistant Police Chief Bobby Day, with the London police department, said due to Kentucky's HB 63, there is at least one armed officer in each of Laurel County's 18 schools, with some having multiple.

Day added that there was "strong presence" of law enforcement on campus and said there will continue to be a saturated presence of officers on school grounds and bus routes.

"We don't have a conclusion. We have an individual who committed an act of evil. We have not located him or brought the investigation to a close. We know people are scared...people feel better when police are there."

While resources are moving out of the forest, the governor made clear that a manhunt is still being conducted as the search for Couch continues.

"We're still conducting a manhunt in the Daniel Boone National Forest. We're asking everyone to be careful. I would continue to stay out of the area," he said.

Comments( 0 )

+ Comments