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SEARCHA man suspected of fatally shooting a Kentucky trooper Sunday night was shot and killed by state police early Monday morning.
Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder (Photo: Kentucky State Police)
A man suspected of fatally shooting a Kentucky trooper Sunday night was shot and killed by state police early Monday morning.
Authorities said 25-year-old Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks, of Missouri, was located in a remote rural area near I-24 around 7 a.m., following an all-night manhunt. Johnson-Shanks was armed with a handgun and did not comply with several commands to drop his weapon, Sgt. Mike Webb told FoxNews.
"That gave the trooper closest to him no choice but to fire his agency-issued weapon, striking him multiple times," Webb said.
Johnson-Shanks was arrested while police waited for EMS at the scene and he died from his injuries at a local hospital at 8:23 a.m. Webb said he wasn't aware of any statements Johnson-Shanks may have made prior to being shot.
A statement released early Monday said that Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder, 31, was pronounced dead at a Princeton, Ky., hospital after being shot multiple times late Sunday night. Ponder had been a state trooper since January of this year.
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