Man accused of shooting 5 on Kentucky interstate vowed to ‘kill a lot of people,’ warrant says
LONDON, Ky. — The man suspected of opening fire on a highway in Kentucky sent a text message vowing to “kill a lot of people” less than 30 minutes before he shot and wounded five people on Interstate 75, authorities said in an arrest warrant.
“I’m going to kill a lot of people. Well try at least,” Joseph Couch, 32, wrote in the text message, according to the warrant affidavit filed in court. In a separate text message, Couch wrote, “I’ll kill myself afterwards,” the affidavit says.
The Lexington Herald-Leader identified the woman Couch sent the text messages to as his ex-wife. The affidavit does not describe the relationship between Couch and the woman who received the texts.
The affidavit, written by Capt. Richard Dalrymple of the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office, said that before authorities received the first report of the shooting about 5:30 p.m. Saturday, a dispatcher in Laurel County received a call from a woman who told them Couch had sent her the text messages at 5:03 p.m.
A manhunt was underway early Sunday in southeastern Kentucky near Interstate 75, according to authorities who said up to seven people were hurt in the shooting and a vehicle accident that accompanied the violence.
In response to that call, police initiated a tracker on Couch’s cellphone but location wasn’t received until 6:53 p.m., the affidavit states, almost 90 minutes after the highway shooting.
The affidavit obtained by the Associated Press charges Couch with five counts each of criminal attempt to commit murder and first-degree assault.
On Sunday, the day after the shooting, law enforcement officers searched an area near the location where Couch’s vehicle was found, with a view of I-75.
Joseph A. Couch, 32, was named a suspect in Saturday’s shootings after authorities found a semiautomatic weapon they believe was used in the shootings.
There, they found a green Army-style duffel bag, ammunition and numerous spent shell casings, the affidavit says. A short distance away, they found a Colt AR-15 rifle with a sight mounted to the weapon and several additional magazines. The duffel bag had “Couch” handwritten in black marker.
Searchers have been combing thousands of acres in the rugged, hilly area near London, a small city of about 8,000 people about 75 miles south of Lexington.
State police Master Trooper Scottie Pennington, a spokesman for the London post, said troopers are being brought in from across the state to aid in the search focused on a remote area about eight miles north of London. He described the extensive search area as “walking in a jungle” with machetes needed to cut through thickets.
“We have cliff beds. We have sinkholes. We have caves,” Pennington said Monday. “We have culverts that go under the interstate. We have creeks and rivers and the dense brush.”
Authorities vowed to keep up their pursuit as residents worried about where the shooter might turn up next.
“We’re not going to quit until we do lay hands on him,” Laurel County Sheriff John Root said.
Christina DiNoto, who witnessed the shooting Saturday while driving on I-75, said Monday that the search weighs heavily on her mind.
“To know that he’s still at large — that makes me nervous, honestly,” she said.
DiNoto, an IT project manager, said the shooting also unlocked a new kind of fear, “like you have to be scared to even just drive on the highways.”
Meanwhile, more than a dozen school districts shut down Monday in southeastern Kentucky.
Donna Hess, who lives 10 miles from the shooting scene in rural Laurel County, agreed with the decision to close schools. Both of her children, a first grader and preschooler, normally take the bus.
“I’d be afraid he’d try to hijack the bus and take the kids as hostages,” Hess said. “I’m worried about everybody because they don’t know where he’s at. I’m hoping they catch him soon. We don’t know what he’s capable of right now.”
Couch most recently lived in Woodbine, a small community about 20 miles south of the shooting scene. Authorities said he purchased the weapon and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition Saturday morning in London.
Kentucky has few regulations on purchasing guns and carrying them in public. The state’s gun laws “are among the worst in the country” according to a report by the nonprofit Everytown For Gun Safety.
A man who fatally shot five co-workers at a Louisville bank in 2023 wrote in his journal that he was surprised he could buy an AR-15 and 120 rounds in less than an hour. He wrote that it was “so easy” despite his history of mental illness.
Kentucky legislators repealed a law in 2019 that required a permit for carrying a concealed weapon. The state also does not require a background check at the point of purchase.
Authorities in Kentucky said Monday that Couch was in the Army Reserve and not the National Guard, as officials initially indicated. The U.S. Army said in a statement that Couch was in the Army Reserve from 2013 to 2019 as a combat engineer. He was a private when he left and had no deployments.
Pennington said Monday that military experience doesn’t make Couch a trained survivalist. Regardless of his experience, the plan is to wear Couch down.
“It doesn’t matter if you are a survivalist if you’re out there without food and water,” Pennington said. “How long can you really survive? We hope he just walks out.”
Authorities said Couch fired 20 to 30 rounds, striking 12 vehicles on the interstate Saturday.
DiNoto, 39, was driving through Kentucky on Saturday with a friend on her way back to Houston after visiting relatives in Rochester, N.Y., when they heard a loud noise Saturday and assumed a rock had hit her back windshield. Her friend wondered whether it was gunshots, but they quickly dismissed the possibility.
The driver of a truck in the next lane slumped over and pulled to the side of the road, but DiNoto assumed the cause was something like a tire blowout. They saw first responders barreling down the highway but didn’t realize there had been a shooting until the friend’s father called to check on them 90 minutes later.
Schreiner and Lovan write for the Associated Press. AP reporters Tara Copp in Washington, Leah Willingham in Charleston, W.Va., and John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., contributed to this report.
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