US Shooting: Man Kills Girlfriend, Her Mother Near Kentucky Courthouse; Shoots Self After Police Standoff
A gunman who fatally shot a mother and daughter and injured another man outside a Kentucky courthouse led police on a highway pursuit before shooting himself Monday, police said.
Elizabethtown, August 20: A gunman who fatally shot a mother and daughter and injured another man outside a Kentucky courthouse led police on a highway pursuit before shooting himself Monday, police said. The suspect, Christopher Elder, 46, was in critical condition after suffering a gunshot wound, Elizabethtown police said.
One of the victims, 37-year-old Erica Riley of Elizabethtown, had attended a court hearing in Hardin County with Elder Monday morning before the shooting, police said. The two had been in a relationship, Elizabethtown Police Chief Jeremy Thompson said. Riley's mother, 71-year-old Janet Rylee of Hardinsburg, was also shot and died after being transported to a hospital, police said in a media release Monday afternoon. UK Shooting: 6 Killed, Including Suspected Shooter in Plymouth.
The shooting occurred in a parking lot and Elder fled the scene afterward, Thompson said. Elder's vehicle was located on a highway by police in western Kentucky and he was pursued and stopped, Thompson said. The chief said police negotiators were speaking with Elder before he turned a gun on himself. Elizabethtown is about 45 miles (72.4 kilometres) south of Louisville. The man who was shot was also related to Riley, Thompson said. He was in stable condition, police said. His name has not been released. US Shooting: Multiple Killed, Several Injured in Drive-By Shooting in Alabama’s Birmingham.
Nearby schools were placed on a “soft lockdown,” after the shooting until police were able to determine it was an isolated incident, Thompson said. Michael Cockerel told The Associated Press he was walking out of the Hardin County Justice Centre Monday morning when he heard gunshots nearby. He heard a series of shots and initially thought it was a nail gun from a construction site. But after he heard a few shots, "that's when it clicked in my head that this might be gunshots,” Cockerel said. Cockerel said he took cover behind a car in a nearby parking lot. When he thought the danger was over, he returned to the front of the courthouse and saw the victims across the street. He said he never saw the shooter.