LONDON, Kentucky: Multiple people were shot Saturday along Interstate 75 in a rural area of southeastern Kentucky, authorities said.
The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said in a post on Facebook that it was an “active shooter situation” and “numerous persons” were shot near the highway.
In a video statement, London Mayor Randall Weddle said was told seven people were hurt, but not all of those were wounded by gunfire. Some of the victims were injured in a vehicle accident, he said.
“There are no deceased at this time. No one was killed from this, thankfully, but we ask that you continue to pray,” Weddle said.
Hospital officials at Saint Joseph London said in a statement that the facility was treating multiple patients, LEX 18 reported. The hospital added that the ones it received had minor injuries.
The sheriff’s office also announced that a “Person of Interest” has been identified in connection with the shooting, saying he should be considered armed and dangerous and people should not approach him. The man’s name was given as Joseph A. Couch, a 32-year-old white male, and anyone with information about his location was urged to call the county 911 center.
State lawmakers from Laurel County urged residents in the area to stay home as police continued to search for the shooter. “Without a doubt, this is an act of senseless violence that does not reflect the values of this community, our Commonwealth, or its people,” they said in a statement.
A “heavy presence of police and fire personnel” was on the scene and “working diligently to address the situation,” the Mount Vernon Fire Department said in a statement. It advised motorists to avoid I-75 and US 25.
The interstate was closed 9 miles (14 kilometers) north of London but later reopened, according to the sheriff’s office.
“I am receiving initial reports from the Kentucky State Police and our Office of Homeland Security — together we are actively monitoring the situation and offering support in any way possible,” Gov. Andy Beshear said in a post on the social platform X. “Please pray for everyone involved.”
“We will provide more details once they are available,” Beshear said.
London is a a small city with a population of about 8,000 located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Lexington.
Multiple people reported hit in latest case of mass shooting in the US
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Multiple people reported hit in latest case of mass shooting in the US
- The incident comes just days after a mass shooting at a Winder, Georgia high school that saw 4 killed and nine others wounded
Hegseth says he would have ordered second strike on Caribbean vessel
- The Trump administration has framed the attacks as a war with drug cartels, calling them armed groups and saying the drugs being carried to the United States kill Americans
WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Saturday that he backs a September 2 decision to launch a second strike on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean.
“I fully support that strike,” Hegseth said at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California. “I would have made the same call myself.”
A video of the attack was shown to members of Congress on Capitol Hill behind closed doors on Thursday, days after reports surfaced that the commander overseeing the operation ordered a second strike to take out two survivors to comply with Hegseth’s direction that everyone should be killed.
Officials from President Donald Trump’s administration have since said that Hegseth did not order the additional strike, and that Admiral Frank Bradley, who led the Joint Special Operations Command at the time, concluded the boat’s wreckage must be neutralized because it might contain cocaine.
Hegseth on Saturday repeated his account of the day, saying that he had seen the first strike on September 2, but then left the room to attend another meeting. He declined to say whether the administration would release the full video, calling the issue “under review.”
The September 2 attack was the first of 22 on vessels in the southern Caribbean and Pacific carried out by the US military as part of what the Trump administration calls a campaign to stem the flow of illegal drugs into the United States.
The strikes have killed 87 people, with one carried out in the eastern Pacific on Thursday.
Accounts of the September 2 strikes have prompted concerns that US forces carried out a war crime.
The video of the attack shown to lawmakers showed two men clinging to wreckage after their vessel was destroyed, according to two sources familiar with the imagery.
They were shirtless, unarmed and carried no visible communications equipment.
The Defense Department’s Law of War Manual forbids attacks on combatants who are incapacitated, unconscious or shipwrecked, as long as they abstain from hostilities and do not attempt to escape. The manual cites firing upon shipwreck survivors as an example of a “clearly illegal” order that should be refused.
The Trump administration has framed the attacks as a war with drug cartels, calling them armed groups and saying the drugs being carried to the United States kill Americans.
