Johnson-Shanks drew a weapon at a state police trooper, ignored commands to drop his weapon and was shot, Thomas said.
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Officials with Kentucky State Police said 31-year-old Joseph Cameron Ponder was killed after a high speed pursuit in Lyon County Sunday night. Ponder was taken to a hospital in Princeton, Kentucky, where he died shortly before midnight, the release said.
Around 7 a.m. Monday troopers caught up with Johnson-Shanks in a wooded area near the interstate.
“From time to time, our troopers do things like that”, Kentucky State Patrol spokesman Jay Thomas said.
Ponder graduated from the Kentucky State Police Training Academy this past January. After talking with Shanks, Thomas said the trooper ran his driver’s information and learned his operator’s license had been suspended.
Thomas says the KSP does have the authority to investigate its own shootings.
The law enforcement community is reacting to the loss of a Kentucky State Police trooper.
The suspect then fled the scene on foot. The suspect then abruptly stopped at mile marker 49, causing Ponder’s auto to hit the vehicle, according to KSP.
Police investigators were still trying to piece together what spurred Johnson-Shanks to flee during the initial stop. The other people were detained but it’s unclear whether any of them were charged, Thomas said.
Ponder received a track scholarship to Western Kentucky University but turned it down to go into the Navy.
Ponder is the second trooper from the Mayfield publish to be killed within the line of obligation this yr. That same month, Johnson-Shanks was the recipient of $1,000 from the Missouri State Lottery.
Authorities had closed a 9-mile section of Interstate 24 as they searched for the suspect. About an hour and 20 minutes later Johnson-Shanks died at the same hospital where Ponder had passed away nearly nine hours earlier.
The St. Louis Post Dispatch reports that Johnson-Shanks was arrested on August. 10, 2014, for “failure to appear”.
In June, 23-year-old Eric K. Chrisman was killed while responding to a reckless driving complaint.
“Six o’clock came around and I was still on the treadmill and that’s when they showed his picture, and I just lost it”, said Webb. “We know the risks … and we accept those risks”. “It’s tough on us, and it’s tough on our families”.
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Further details of the investigation are set to be released this afternoon.
