Funeral arrangements are set for Trooper Joseph Ponder, who was fatally shot Sunday during a traffic stop.
Advertisement
The driver then started firing shots at the police cruiser, hitting the hood, windshield and Trooper Ponder, 31, multiple times. According to Kentucky State Police, several shots were fired at Ponder’s cruiser striking the auto and Ponder multiple times. There also were two young children in the auto, police said.
The other passenger, whom Thomas did not identify, was “cooperative”, he said “and gave statements to our detectives”.
“He was trying to help them out, and for an unknown reason, the driver fled”, Thomas said.
One of the two women who had been in Johnson-Shanks’ vehicle, his 18-year-old niece, has been arrested and accused of hindering the apprehension of someone wanted by authorities. Ponder’s auto collided with the rear of the suspect’s vehicle.
Police closed a 9-mile section of Interstate 24 while the search was being conducted.
Johnson-Shanks was found Monday after a massive manhunt in woods near I-24, near where the shooting had occurred.
EDDYVILLE, KY – The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet says Interstate 24 has reopened to traffic between mile marker 45 and mile marker 56 in Lyon and Caldwell counties.
“We’re just trying to stay positive and doing our job the best we can”, Trooper Thomas said.
It ended shortly before 7 a.m. Monday, when members of a Kentucky State Police team spotted Johnson-Shanks and confronted him, Thomas said. “He refused verbal commands from our Troopers to lower his weapon”.
The officer was reportedly attempting to find local accommodations for the group when Johnson-Shanks drove off and led Ponder on a highway pursuit.
An autopsy was conducted on Trooper Ponder today in Louisville and his results are pending. Ponder was autopsied Monday.
Ponder was a Navy veteran and had been a state trooper for less than a year, according to news reports.
“He was very proud to be a Kentucky State Police trooper”, fellow trooper Jay Thomas told KFVS-TV.
“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.
Ponder had only been on the force less than a year. He was responding to a reckless driving complaint when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a tractor-trailor truck.
Advertisement
Chrisman and Ponder graduated together and were both assigned to Mayfield Post 1. Troopers saw him with a firearm, Thomas said, and instructed him to drop his weapon.
