A gunman who fatally shot a mother and daughter and injured another man outside a Kentucky courthouse led police on a highway pursuit before shooting himself on Monday.
Elizabethtown Police said the suspect, Christopher Elder, 46, was in critical condition after suffering a gunshot wound.
One of the victims, 37-year-old Erica Riley of Elizabethtown, had attended a court hearing in Hardin County with Elder Monday morning before the shooting. The two had been in a relationship, Elizabethtown Police Chief Jeremy Thompson said.
Riley's mother, 71-year-old Janet Riley of Hardinsburg, was also shot and died after being transported to a hospital.
The shooting occurred in a parking lot and Elder fled the scene afterward.
Thompson said the man who was shot was also related to Riley. He was in stable condition.
Nearby schools were placed on a soft lockdown after the shooting until police were able to determine it was an isolated incident.
Michael Cockerel told The Associated Press he was walking out of the Hardin County Justice Center Monday morning when he heard gunshots nearby. He said he initially thought it was a nail gun from a construction site.
But after he heard a few shots, "that’s when it clicked in my head that this might be gunshots,” Cockerel said.
Cockerel said he took cover behind a car in a nearby parking lot. When he thought the danger was over, he returned to the front of the courthouse and saw the victims across the street. He said he never saw the shooter.
According to WKDZ, Elder fled from deputies in Muhlenburg County along Greenville Road before crossing into Christian County. Reports from first responders indicate that the man pulled into a parking lot off Judges Chapel Road and shot himself. He was then flown to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for treatment.
Photos courtesy of WKDZ
