The authorities in Kentucky said on Sunday that they had contained a person of interest in connection with a shooting on an interstate highway that left five people seriously injured.
Officers were called to Interstate 75 at Exit 49, about eight miles north of London, Ky., at about 5:30 p.m. on Saturday after reports that someone had been shot, Sheriff John Root of Laurel County said in a statement early on Sunday.
They found nine vehicles with gunshot damage in the northbound and southbound lanes, and five victims with serious injuries, Sheriff Root said.
All five victims were expected to survive, a spokesman for the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office, Deputy Gilbert Acciardo, told reporters on Sunday. Two other people were hurt in a crash arising from the gunfire, The Associated Press reported.
Deputy Acciardo said that when law enforcement officers arrived on the scene on Saturday, they saw several vehicles parked on the shoulder of the interstate with their emergency lights flashing.
Some vehicles had their windows shot out and had visible bullet holes. He said it wasn’t clear where the gunshots were fired from. A motive for the shooting was not immediately clear and officials have not said what weapon was used.
Deputy Acciardo told The Courier Journal that the person of interest identified on Saturday who was being sought had been contained within a search area on Sunday morning but he did not elaborate.
The deputy said that the person had not yet been named as a suspect because there was no video footage or other information to directly connect him to the shooting.
Deputy Acciardo did not say how investigators determined that the man was a person of interest but he said that he “probably will more than likely be a suspect before the day’s end.”
Numerous law enforcement agencies provided resources, including infrared scanners, to help with the search, which resumed on Sunday morning in a remote, wooded area of southeastern Kentucky.
Randall Weddle, the mayor of London, said in a Facebook video on Saturday night that the authorities were searching in “rugged terrain” in the northern part of Laurel County. The City of London is about 90 miles south of Lexington.
The authorities closed I-75 for several hours on Saturday night “because of the danger to passing cars in the area of the shootings,” Sheriff Root said.
Angel Jarrett was working at the 49er Truck Stop, near the exit where the shooting took place, when someone told her that shots had been fired nearby.
Eventually, multiple police cars surrounded the truck stop and placed it on lockdown.
“We’re not allowed to go in or out,” Ms. Jarrett said. “It’s a little panicky, but we’re OK.”
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