Manhunt after cars hit in shooting near US highway

[Still Waters]

A manhunt is under way in Kentucky after a number of people were shot on a highway near the city of London on Saturday.

The incident began at about 17:30 local time (21:30 GMT). Police arrived and found nine vehicles had been shot into near Interstate 75.

Seven people have been injured, five of those seriously, according to the Laurel County Sheriff.

Mayor Randall Weddle of London said not all of these injuries were by gunshot, and that no-one had been killed.

Police have named Joseph A Couch, 32, as a person of interest and say he is considered armed and dangerous.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr40vp6rgldo

[+susieice]

Why would anyone want to shoot at random people driving down a highway?   I hope he's caught soon and severely punished for this.

[acidhead]

LIVE Streaming coverage: 

 

[+and-then]

I wonder what set the little doom goblin off?  If he's using an AR with off the shelf ammo, he's likely shooting from no more than 3-4 hundred yards, max.

[+susieice]

LE has ruled out road rage as a motive. They found the gun in the woods. They also said he couldn't have fired from his vehicle. It was found by the interstate.

‘Definitely not road rage’: Kentucky sheriff’s office searches for motive as hunt for I-75 shooter goes on | CNN

Edited September 8 by susieice

[acidhead]

2 hours ago, acidhead said:

LIVE Streaming coverage: 

 

Steve restarted the X stream. 

Here's his LIVE YouTube streaming coverage: 

 

[pellinore]

3 hours ago, susieice said:

Why would anyone want to shoot at random people driving down a highway?   I hope he's caught soon and severely punished for this.

Although we don't have many mass shootings in the UK (Hungerford, Dunblane were notable), I think it is anger. They are paying back 'society' for their unhappiness.

[diddyman68]

8 minutes ago, pellinore said:

Although we don't have many mass shootings in the UK (Hungerford, Dunblane were notable), I think it is anger. They are paying back 'society' for their unhappiness.

My theory why the us has so many mass shootings is down to the amount of kids that are put on antidepressants or anti psyc drugs at a very early age.

Also the easy access to guns.id like to see how many of these school shooters etc were on prescribed drugs , I'm guessing a huge percentage were .

[+and-then]

33 minutes ago, diddyman68 said:

Also the easy access to guns

The problem with this idea is that Americans have always had easy access to guns.  There are more guns available in the US than there are people.  There is no way to confiscate them and if a government ever tried it it would lead to far worse bloodshed than happens today.  IMO, the shootings are just a reflection of the deterioration of morality and common sense in America.  If our "leaders" in DC keep enforcing a double standard of justice, the problem is apt to become many times worse.

[jmccr8]

21 minutes ago, and-then said:

The problem with this idea is that Americans have always had easy access to guns.  There are more guns available in the US than there are people.  There is no way to confiscate them and if a government ever tried it it would lead to far worse bloodshed than happens today.  IMO, the shootings are just a reflection of the deterioration of morality and common sense in America.  If our "leaders" in DC keep enforcing a double standard of justice, the problem is apt to become many times worse.

HI And Then

They could make the ownership so restrictive on assault styles weapons that it's not worth getting one. They don't have to take away your weapon if you have it just make new purchases more difficult. 

[Tatetopa]

It seems that people are more hair trigger than their firearms, and have no safety..

.  As I commented earlier, my friend and I strapped .22's to our bikes in the 60's and rode out of Dallas to the nearby country to shoot.  Nobody even gave us a second look.   Its us, not guns.

We did not seem to hate so much as a society, and owning a gun was not such a special deal back then.  It did not raise our testosterone levels so much or compensate for any other deficiencies.  If anything, we were schooled to grow up and be responsible and respectful with firearms

I said this before too, we can't go back.  It is us, we lost that ability as a society to have respect and be responsible.  Its a minority of people these days who exhibit those qualities.  Sound like an old man don't I?

[+susieice]

Police have received about 100 reports of sightings of Couch. He's no longer a person of interest and is now a suspect. The article says they halted the search at 3 AM and resumed at 9 AM. I don't know. That's 6 hrs that he may have used to get out of the area.

Person of interest named as suspect in Kentucky freeway shooting that injured 7: Sheriff - ABC News (go.com)

Root said the decision to name Couch as a suspect was based on evidence collected in the investigation. Asked to elaborate, Root said that the recovery of the weapon and Couch's vehicle, as well as "some information” he could not share, prompted investigators to elevate Couch to a suspect in the shooting.

Police have received more than 100 calls from people reporting they may have spotted Couch, Acciardo said. He said authorities believe Couch is hiding in the woods near the interstate.

Root said Couch has an address in Woodbine, Kentucky, and the sheriff's office described him as about 5-foot-10-inches tall and 154 pounds.

The Kentucky shooting came less than a week after six people were injured in six shootings that occurred on Sept. 2 on Interstate 5 in Washington state between 8:26 p.m. and 11:01 p.m. local time, officials previously said. A suspect whose vehicle was sought in connection with several of the shootings was arrested in the Tacoma area on Sept. 3, police said.

[+susieice]

The news tonight said police were able to trace the gun they found back to Couch. They found where he purchased it from. They believe it's the gun that was used in the shooting. He had just bought it with ammo Saturday morning.

Kentucky officials search for suspect in I-75 shooting – NBC New York

Couch most recently lived in Woodbine, a small community about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of the shooting scene.

Authorities said Couch purchased the gun and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition Saturday morning in London. Couch has a military background, having served in the National Guard for at least four years, said Captain Richard Dalrymple of the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office.

Edited September 9 by susieice

[DarkHunter]

4 hours ago, jmccr8 said:

They don't have to take away your weapon if you have it just make new purchases more difficult. 

Won't work, besides from the Supreme Court essentially ruling such things are unconstitutional, there is the issue of ease of production.  The AR style gun is stupidly easy to make from raw resources.  A relatively cheap CNC machine, roughly $1,200 which is cheaper than all high end and some medium quality AR guns, can allow anyone to start a production line for AR style guns.  The dimensions and machining steps are stupidly easy to get online.

If you make getting guns hard enough or even illegal then it will just create a massive black/ghost market for guns.  It will start with AR style guns but as people get better AR machining they will start producing other style and types of guns too.

Edited September 9 by DarkHunter

[+and-then]

4 hours ago, jmccr8 said:

HI And Then

They could make the ownership so restrictive on assault styles weapons that it's not worth getting one. They don't have to take away your weapon if you have it just make new purchases more difficult. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban

We had restrictive laws that grandfathered weapons that were already in the possession of citizens.  The law above explains the pros and cons and after 10 years, it had a "sunset clause".  There was no appreciable decrease in violent crime, primarily due to the fact mentioned in this thread.  VERY few murders are done with these type of weapons.  PERIOD.  For my part, they can outlaw whatever they choose so long as they never come to my door to try to take my property when I've committed no crime.  Tens of millions of Americans feel precisely the same.  This is also why so-called "red flag" laws will be resisted.  Most of those that I've seen require only an accusation that a person MAY be violent in the future, to enable law enforcement to search their home, take their electronic devices for evidence gathering as well as collecting all guns of every kind that are in the home.  ALL BASED ON AN ACCUSATION.  Often enough, that charge can even be made anonymously.  

[psyche101]

4 hours ago, jmccr8 said:

HI And Then

They could make the ownership so restrictive on assault styles weapons that it's not worth getting one. They don't have to take away your weapon if you have it just make new purchases more difficult. 

Too sensible. Republicans and conservatives wouldn't entertain the idea at all. 

[jmccr8]

41 minutes ago, DarkHunter said:

Won't work, besides from the Supreme Court essentially ruling such things are unconstitutional, there is the issue of ease of production.  The AR style gun is stupidly easy to make from raw resources.  A relatively cheap CNC machine, roughly $1,200 which is cheaper than all high end and some medium quality AR guns, can allow anyone to start a production line for AR style guns.  The dimensions and machining steps are stupidly easy to get online.

If you make getting guns hard enough or even illegal then it will just create a massive black/ghost market for guns.  It will start with AR style guns but as people get better AR machining they will start producing other style and types of guns too.

HI Dark

Thanks for the response and yes likely some blackmart manufacturing is and has been going on for decades. I don't know what assault rifle sale and demand there is in the US so can't say much on how restrictions on those weapons would affect black market fabrication and distribution. 

[psyche101]

9 minutes ago, jmccr8 said:

HI Dark

Thanks for the response and yes likely some blackmart manufacturing is and has been going on for decades. I don't know what assault rifle sale and demand there is in the US so can't say much on how restrictions on those weapons would affect black market fabrication and distribution. 

This is what happens to the black market when sensible regulations are introduced.

 

Black market guns triple in price

Illegal firearms have more than tripled in price in the past two years forcing criminals to share guns, police say.

Semi-automatic handguns were the weapon of choice for underworld figures and prices have risen from $2000-$4000 to more than $15,000, a senate inquiry into illegal guns heard on Monday.

[DarkHunter]

8 minutes ago, jmccr8 said:

HI Dark

Thanks for the response and yes likely some blackmart manufacturing is and has been going on for decades. I don't know what assault rifle sale and demand there is in the US so can't say much on how restrictions on those weapons would affect black market fabrication and distribution. 

The AR-15 is the single most popular rifle, and probably gun, in America by a wide margin.  Depending on the source it is estimated there are between 20 million and 44 million known AR-15 rifles in circulation.  That doesn't factor in one's built by individuals which would probably be at minimum another couple million, the 80% lower receivers have generally not been treated as guns so there is no back ground check or data on how many 80% lower receivers are in circulation.  

[jmccr8]

45 minutes ago, and-then said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban

We had restrictive laws that grandfathered weapons that were already in the possession of citizens.  The law above explains the pros and cons and after 10 years, it had a "sunset clause".  There was no appreciable decrease in violent crime, primarily due to the fact mentioned in this thread.  VERY few murders are done with these type of weapons.  PERIOD.  For my part, they can outlaw whatever they choose so long as they never come to my door to try to take my property when I've committed no crime.  Tens of millions of Americans feel precisely the same.  This is also why so-called "red flag" laws will be resisted.  Most of those that I've seen require only an accusation that a person MAY be violent in the future, to enable law enforcement to search their home, take their electronic devices for evidence gathering as well as collecting all guns of every kind that are in the home.  ALL BASED ON AN ACCUSATION.  Often enough, that charge can even be made anonymously.  

HI And Then

Have been a member here for a long time and not once have I agrued that guns should be taken away as growing up everyone I knew had one and several that I knew had gun rooms and that was where the men sat, smoked, drank and talked. I wasn't taught to hunt but as kids were did target shoot at tin cans. The military taught me to use them to kill other people so when I became a civilian I never desired to own one. If I had a problem with someone it was fists and feet not bullets flying by or hitting home. Yes I have carried a knife all of my life and still never had to use it in defence and things got dicey more than once. I don't have enough fear of others or dying to warrent buying a gun. I do think that given the number of kids that can take a gun from home that there should be sentencing on parents for not properly storing weapons and accessory to murder. I also think acquisition regulations can be enhanced. 

[+and-then]

2 minutes ago, DarkHunter said:

The AR-15 is the single most popular rifle, and probably gun, in America by a wide margin.  Depending on the source it is estimated there are between 20 million and 44 million known AR-15 rifles in circulation.  That doesn't factor in one's built by individuals which would probably be at minimum another couple million, the 80% lower receivers have generally not been treated as guns so there is no back ground check or data on how many 80% lower receivers are in circulation.  

This^ is why passing laws that become retroactive will only create a class of felons out of millions of law-abiding citizens.  It isn't about saving lives, it's about power and the ability to crush people you disagree with.  A few here would absolutely LOVE it to know millions were considered felons.  That is the mark of evil and they embrace it with relish.

[+and-then]

2 minutes ago, jmccr8 said:

I do think that given the number of kids that can take a gun from home that there should be sentencing on parents for not properly storing weapons and accessory to murder.

On this^ at least, we can agree.  IF a parent has been faced with dealing with law enforcement questions over threats made by their child and then they give the kid an AR - or any other semi-auto of the kind - and that kid goes on to kill and maim, then the parents have no excuse.

[DarkHunter]

6 minutes ago, and-then said:

This^ is why passing laws that become retroactive will only create a class of felons out of millions of law-abiding citizens.  It isn't about saving lives, it's about power and the ability to crush people you disagree with.  A few here would absolutely LOVE it to know millions were considered felons.  That is the mark of evil and they embrace it with relish.

It is definitely about power and crushing anyone and everyone they don't agree with, with historically has lead to the worst atrocities ever seen.  A few on here would definitely love to have those they disagree with being considered felons

[jmccr8]

22 minutes ago, and-then said:

This^ is why passing laws that become retroactive will only create a class of felons out of millions of law-abiding citizens.  It isn't about saving lives, it's about power and the ability to crush people you disagree with.  A few here would absolutely LOVE it to know millions were considered felons.  That is the mark of evil and they embrace it with relish.

HI And Then

Not sure what you mean by retroactive as I thought I made it clear that I was taking about current(new) sales. I never said to take anything away from anyone that owns one now. Stiffer penalties for improper storage or any related infractions. We made tougher laws and penalties for impaired driving in a hope to save lives and this is the same thing if you are going to drink(own a gun) be responsible. 

[+and-then]

15 hours ago, jmccr8 said:

I never said to take anything away from anyone that owns one now.

I understand that.  What I'm saying is that we already tried a ban on new sales.  It lasted a decade and there were plausible arguments that it did no good in reducing crime at all.  P'raps because of the actual impact of removing this type of weapon (semi-auto long gun) creates nearly no effect on overall gun deaths.  By FAR, most gun deaths occur from handguns.  Any law that did not remove them as well, would cause no significant difference.  That would be the next step and argument by the Left in DC.  The goal is to remove as many as they can, then criminalize the 100+ million owners who ignore the law.  Facism, IOW.

Until Americans get serious about demanding a hardening of access to schools, these tragedies will continue.