Associated Press
RICHMOND, Ky. — A central Kentucky police officer was shot in the head and suffered life-threatening injuries Wednesday morning while searching for a man who tried to mug a woman in the parking lot of a downtown gas station, authorities and witnesses said.
The Richmond police officer was taken to the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky State Police Trooper Robert Purdy said. His name and condition have not been released.
A second officer returned fire and shot the suspect, who was also injured and taken to the hospital, Purdy said.
It began around 7:15 a.m. when a regular customer stopped at the Gulf gas station on Main Street in downtown Richmond, about 100 miles southeast of Louisville. Station manager Missi McCoy said the customer was returning to her car in the parking lot when a van pulled up next to her and a man jumped out and tried to grab her purse.
As the woman struggled with the robber, McCoy said, a man walking to work across the street saw what was happening and ran to help.
The robber jumped back into the van and the driver sped away, McCoy said. The woman, though panicked and crying, managed to get the license plate number and called police to report the incident. She said the mugger had threatened her with a gun, McCoy said.
McCoy and her customers were stunned by the daylight mugging on the busy downtown corner, just two blocks from City Hall and near the Richmond Police Department, which has 56 sworn officers.
More than three hours later, around 10:30 a.m., two Richmond police officers investigating the mugging went to an apartment on Ballard Drive, about a mile from the gas station, Purdy said.
Richmond Mayor Jim Barnes initially said the officers were trying to serve a search warrant, but Purdy later said they did not have a warrant and were just knocking on doors, following leads.
Purdy said they were inside the apartment, occupied by several people, when the man opened fire. It remains unclear what led to the shooting or if the shooter was the same person who robbed the woman at the gas station.
Kevin Lee, who lives in the apartment complex, said he heard a series of gunshots and rushed to his second-story back window, overlooking the scene.
Lee said he saw the officer bleeding on the sidewalk, a few feet outside the apartment’s front door. A few minutes later, he said, he saw officers drag a handcuffed, bleeding man out of the apartment. He said the man was screaming.
“It was pretty chaotic,” Lee said.
Several others in the apartment have been taken in for questioning as police try to piece together how the event unfolded, Purdy said.
Copyright 2016 Associated Press