Sorted by date Results 1 - 23 of 23
WHITESBURG, Ky. (AP) — Residents of a tiny Appalachian town struggled Friday to cope with a shooting involving two of its most prominent citizens: a judge who was gunned down in his courthouse chambers and a local sheriff charged with his murder. "It's just so sad. I just hate it," said Mike Watts, the Letcher County circuit court clerk. "Both of them are friends of mine. I've worked with both of them for years." The preliminary investigation indicates Letcher County Sheriff Shawn "Mickey" Stines shot District Judge Kevin Mullins multiple times...
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 s...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict on federal civil rights charges in the trial of a former Kentucky police officer charged in the death of Breonna Taylor, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial. Brett Hankison was charged with using excessive force during a March 2020 police search in Louisville that claimed the life of Taylor, a Black woman. Hankison fired 10 shots after officers came under fire during the drug warrant search on March 13, 2020. None of his bullets struck anyone, but prosecutors said H...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — WHAT HAPPENED? Federal investigators discovered a human remains trade with connections to Harvard Medical School and have arrested people in several states. According to prosecutors, the defendants were part of a nationwide network of people who bought and sold remains stolen from the medical school and an Arkansas mortuary. One of those charged, 55-year-old Cedric Lodge, of New Hampshire, allegedly took dissected parts of cadavers that had been donated to Harvard in a scheme that started back in 2018, prosecutors said. A...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky's ban on gender-affirming care for young transgender people was restored Friday when a federal judge lifted an injunction he issued last month that had temporarily blocked the restrictions. The latest ruling by U.S. District Judge David Hale means the Kentucky prohibition goes into effect, preventing transgender minors from accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapy. Kentucky Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who had asked that the injunction be lifted, applauded the ruling, while transgender r...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Frantic calls from witnesses reporting a mass shooting at a Louisville bank were released Wednesday by police — including from a woman who was on a virtual meeting and saw the shooter, as well as one from the man's mother, who told a 911 operator that her son "currently has a gun and is heading toward" the bank. "I need your help. He's never hurt anyone, he's a good kid," said the woman, who identified herself as the gunman's mother. It turned out that at the time of her call, the gunman was already at the bank. The emerg...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Louisville bank employee armed with a rifle opened fire at his workplace Monday morning, killing four people — including a close friend of Kentucky's governor — while livestreaming the attack on Instagram, authorities said. Police arrived as shots were still being fired inside Old National Bank and killed the shooter in an exchange of gunfire, Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said. The city's mayor, Craig Greenberg, called the attack "an evil act of targeted violence." The shoot...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The boyfriend of Breonna Taylor who fired a shot at police as they burst through Taylor's door the night she was killed has settled two lawsuits against the city of Louisville, his attorneys said Monday. The city agreed to pay $2 million to settle lawsuits filed by Kenneth Walker in federal and state court, one of his attorneys, Steve Romines, said in a statement. He added that Taylor's death "will haunt Kenny for the rest of his life." "He will live with the effects of being put in harm's way due to a falsified w...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A former Louisville police detective who helped falsify the warrant that led to the deadly police raid at Breonna Taylor's apartment has pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge. Federal investigators said Kelly Goodlett added a false line to the warrant and later conspired with another detective to create a cover story when Taylor's March 13, 2020, shooting death by police began gaining national attention. Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was shot to death by officers who knocked down her door while executing a dr...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Louisville activists put in long hours on phones and in the streets, working tirelessly to call for arrests in the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor — but it was mostly two years filled with frustration. This week they saw their fortunes suddenly change, when U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced federal charges against four officers involved in the March 13, 2020, raid that ended in Taylor's death. After a series of disappointing setbacks, the charges brought a welcome sense of relief. "It is such a weigh...
A Kentucky woman who worked her way up from school bus driver to become an administrator and school board member. A grandfather who "stole the show" when he was around his grandchildren. A 2-month-old whose family tried to protect her by putting her in a car seat. A 94-year-old Korean War veteran from Arkansas. These were among at least 88 people killed during tornadoes Friday night that ripped through five states in the Midwest and South. The tornado outbreak cut a path of devastation that stretched from Arkansas, where a nursing home was...
A 2-month-old whose family tried to protect her by putting her in a car seat. A 94-year-old Korean War veteran from Arkansas. A longtime florist in Tennessee who recently "started on her new adventure" as an airport security worker. An Amazon warehouse worker in Illinois. A Kentucky judge known for his common sense. These were among the dozens of people killed during Friday night's tornadoes that ripped through five states in the Midwest and South. There were dozens of confirmed deaths in Arkansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee,...
LOUISVILLE, Ky (AP) — A grand juror who won a court fight to speak publicly about the Breonna Taylor investigation took issue Tuesday with statements by Kentucky's attorney general and said the jury was not given the option to consider charges connected to Taylor's shooting death by police. The anonymous grand juror had filed suit to speak publicly after Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced last month that no officers would be directly charged in the March shooting death of Taylor during a narcotics raid. The grand jury charged o...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The police officer who fatally shot Breonna Taylor described seeing only "shadowy mass" and said he didn't recall firing the 16 bullets later matched to his gun. As she lay bleeding, Taylor's boyfriend called his mother before dialing 911. And neighbors roused by the gunfire at Taylor's apartment after midnight on March 13 only added to conflicting testimony about whether police serving a narcotics warrant announced themselves before using a battering ram to break down her door. Details of the chaos and confusion d...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Some of them raised their fists and called out "Black lives matter!" Others tended to the letters, flowers and signs grouped together in a square in downtown Louisville. All of them said her name: Breonna Taylor. People dismayed that the officers who shot the Black woman in her apartment during a drug raid last March wouldn't be charged with her death vowed to persist in their fight for justice. The big question for a town torn apart by Taylor's death and the larger issue of racism in America was how to move forward. M...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky grand jury brought no charges against Louisville police for the killing of Breonna Taylor during a drug raid gone wrong, with prosecutors saying Wednesday that two officers who fired their weapons at the Black woman were justified in using force to protect themselves after they were shot at. The only charges brought by the grand jury were three counts of wanton endangerment against fired Officer Brett Hankison for shooting into a home next to Taylor's that had people in it. The FBI is still investigating p...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A teen charged in the 2018 Kentucky school shooting that killed two students has pleaded guilty to murder. Gabriel Ross Parker was 15 when he fired a handgun into a crowd of students before classes started at Marshall County High School on Jan. 23, 2018. Parker was arrested at the school and charged with murder. He later was charged as an adult. Marshall County Commonwealth's Attorney Dennis Foust said the plea deal gives Parker a life sentence. Along with the murder convictions, he also pleaded guilty to 14 counts of a...
JEFFERSONTOWN, Ky. (AP) — The fatal shooting death of two black grocery patrons by a white gunman is being investigated as a possible hate crime, a U.S. official said Friday. Federal investigators are examining if there were any violations of federal law, "which includes potential civil rights violations such as hate crimes," said U.S. Attorney Russell M. Coleman in Louisville. Gregory A. Bush, 51, has been charged with murder and other crimes in the deaths of the man and the woman at a Kroger store Wednesday in Jeffersontown, located on the o...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Led from a courtroom in handcuffs Tuesday, one of the nation's most recognizable white nationalists will have 38 days behind bars to ponder the dizzying demise of the group he led before his arrest exposed a bizarre sex scandal. Matthew Heimbach's jail sentence for a probation violation is just the latest setback for the "alt-right" fringe movement that appears to be reeling after becoming emboldened and energized by Donald Trump's presidential campaign and election. Richard Spencer, who coined the term "alt-right" to d...
BENTON, Ky. (AP) — A tight-knit rural community reflected Wednesday on the hometown horror of a school shooting that killed two teenagers, injured 18 and sent hundreds of others fleeing for their lives from a place many considered immune from violence. Police have not publicly identified the 15-year-old accused of opening fire Tuesday at Marshall County High School. Officers said he walked into the "commons" area where many students gather before classes begin and immediately began shooting. Witnesses said he fired a single shot, paused, and th...
BENTON, Ky. (AP) — A 15-year-old student killed two classmates and hit a dozen others with gunfire Tuesday, methodically firing a handgun inside a crowded atrium at his rural Kentucky high school. "He was determined. He knew what he was doing," said Alexandria Caporali, who grabbed her stunned friend and ran into a classroom as their classmates hit the floor. "It was one right after another -- bang bang bang bang bang," she added. "You could see his arm jerking as he was pulling the trigger." Police led a teenager away in handcuffs minutes l...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal judge has halted the impending shutdown of the only clinic in Kentucky that performs abortions. U.S. District Judge Greg Stivers issued a restraining order Friday that prevents Kentucky officials from revoking the license of the EMW Women's Surgical Center in Louisville. Stivers said in his ruling that the clinic demonstrated its patients "would be immediately and irreparably harmed" without the court's order. The temporary restraining order expires in two weeks. The state has told the center it is out of c...
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Nothing puts a smile on Roosevelt Smith's face quite like dancing. It helps him forget, for a while, the post-traumatic stress disorder he's had since the Gulf War. Smith is one of a few dozen veterans with PTSD or traumatic brain injuries who fight depression and anxiety with a group dancing class that gathers at an AmVets post in Louisville, Kentucky. "It's a way of calming yourself, an outlet so to speak," Smith said as a fiddler and a piano player warmed up behind him. "We have a lot of things that we do as far as p...
