Kentucky shooter on the run after wounding at least 7 along highway

COURTESY OF MOUNT VERNON FIRE DEPARTMENT Drivers park on I-75 north of London, Kentucky, tonight after a gunman opened fire and 7 people were injured.

COURTESY OF MOUNVERNON FIRE DEPARTMENT

Drivers park on I-75 north of London, Kentucky tonight after a gunman opened fire, injuring 7 people.

Kentucky police were searching for a suspect in rugged terrain near a national forest after at least seven people were shot and wounded while driving on a rural stretch of an interstate highway, authorities said tonight.

The incident began shortly before 6 p.m. about 9 miles (14 kilometers) outside of London, when officers responded to reports of gunfire directed at vehicles traveling on Interstate 75 in Laurel County. The gunfire came from a wooded area or a highway overpass, according to local media reports.

Mayor Randall Weddle of London, a small town of about 8,000 near the Daniel Boone National Forest about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Lexington, said on Facebook that seven people were injured, some by gunfire. He added that there were no known fatalities. Police provided no further details on the number or nature of the casualties.

Weddle asked everyone in the neighborhood to “keep your doors locked while this guy is on the loose.”

The shooting comes days after two students and two teachers were killed and nine others were injured at a high school in Winder, Georgia. A 14-year-old student and his father, suspected of giving his son access to the gun used in the shooting, have been charged in the shooting, which happened shortly after the start of the school year.

A stretch of highway near the scene of the shooting in Kentucky was closed, but later reopened, although the suspect was still at large.

About three hours after the shooting, the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office named a “person of interest” who it said was “armed and dangerous” and warned the public not to approach the 32-year-old man.

“The suspect has not been arrested at this time and we urge people to stay inside,” Kentucky State Police Trooper Scottie Pennington wrote on Facebook.

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were called in to assist state police and local law enforcement, the federal agency said on X, calling the incident a “critical incident.”