Multiple police officers in eastern Kentucky are hospitalized after being shot while trying to serve a warrant on a suspect who barricaded himself in his residence while holding his wife and daughter hostage, police said.
Floyd County Sheriff John Hunt told local media Thursday evening that the shooting occurred in the small town of Allen, Kentucky, near the West Virginia border. The officers, who were at the home to serve the suspect a warrant in a domestic violence incident, came under immediate gunfire, leaving several injured and causing multiple law enforcement agencies to respond to the scene, police said.
Hunt told CBS affiliate WYMT that the suspect had been taken into custody as of 10 p.m. There have been no officer fatalities reported by authorities, according to the station.
WMDJ FM 100.1 said in a Facebook post that the wife and daugher are now safe. The station reported that four unnamed people were shot during the incident, which began at 5 p.m. and later drew a response from a Kentucky State Police SWAT team.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Louisville said on Twitter that its Ashland and London offices were responding. The agency said the Kentucky State Police “is the point of contact and will release more information as it become available.”
Details about the incident were sparse Thursday evening, including the number of officers shot, their conditions, the suspect and the events leading up to the confrontation.
Earlier, Hunt told Lexington Fox affiliate WDKY-TV that law enforcement did not believe there was a broader community danger while the suspect was barricaded in his residence, but still kept members of the public “at bay.”
The suspect remained barricaded as of 9:30 p.m. and an area of Allen was closed off for miles, reports NBC affiliate WSAZ-TV. The officers shot were from different agencies and were taken to separate hospitals, the station reported.
Hunt described to WYMT that officers were trying to serve the domestic violence warrant earlier that evening. Authorities have still advised the public to avoid the area because of the large police presence. Footage from the station shows the area awash in flickering lights from law enforcement and other emergency vehicles that had swarmed the area.
Other law enforcement agencies took to social media to express support for the injured officers.
“Please pray for our brothers tonight as they will surely need them,” the Hodgenville Police Department said in a Facebook post.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear in a tweet asked the commonwealth’s residents to join him and his wife “in holding Floyd County in prayer, especially the family and loved ones of those who have responded to a barricade situation involving a shooting.”
“Each day when an officer goes out, he never knows if he is going to make it back home,” the Magoffin County Sheriff Department said in a Facebook post. “These are special people with a desire to put others lives ahead of their own. Please lift them up … they need you right now!”
Newsweek has reached out to the Kentucky State Police and Hunt’s office for updates.
