Kentucky church shooting leaves three dead, including suspect
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The police assessing the scene after a shooting at Richmond Road Baptist Church in Kentucky, the US, on July 13.
PHOTO: AFP
A gunman killed two women at a church in Kentucky and shot and wounded a state trooper outside an airport on July 13 before the police were able to shoot him to death, the authorities said.
The women were killed at the Richmond Road Baptist Church in Lexington.
Officials said the two women, ages 72 and 32, were fatally shot on the church grounds. Two men were also shot. One of them was in critical condition and the other was in stable condition, Lexington police chief Lawrence Weathers told an afternoon press conference.
The shooter was fatally shot by officers of the Lexington Police Department at the church, he added. Three officers opened fire, he said, adding that the shooter was pronounced dead at the scene.
The authorities did not provide the suspect’s name or age.
“There are days like today that are extremely difficult,” the police chief said. “Sometimes things happen, you just don’t have a reason why.”
The suspect fired at the trooper after being pulled over near Blue Grass Airport at about 11.30am local time in Fayette County, he said. The shooting happened on a road that rings the airport but was not connected to its operations, the police said.
The trooper was being treated at a nearby hospital and was in stable condition.
The suspect then carjacked a vehicle about 16km from the airport and fled to Richmond Road Baptist Church, where the individual began firing at people on the church grounds.
Officers were able to track the stolen vehicle to the Richmond Road Baptist Church in Old Richmond Road about 25.7km away from Terminal Drive. The shooter opened fire on people on the church property, the police chief said.
The police chief did not offer any motive for the shootings, but said there was some indication that the suspect may have known some of the people at the church.
He said the Lexington police would conduct an internal review of the shooting, as required by department policies.
The Blue Grass Airport posted on X at 1pm Eastern time (1am on July 14, Singapore time) that there was a law enforcement investigation affecting a portion of an airport road, but that all flights and operations were now proceeding normally. REUTERS, NYTIMES