Slain Kentucky trooper was trying to help when shot
A state trooper who stopped a speeding car in western Kentucky was trying to help the vehicle's occupants before he was gunned down by the driver, police said.
After Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder, 31, pulled over 25-year-old Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks of Florissant, Mo., on Sunday night it emerged that Johnson-Shanks was driving with a suspended license, police said. Ponder then began arranging overnight lodging for the man and his passengers, including two children.
But then, police spokesman Jay Thomas told local media, Johnson-Shanks fled at speeds in excess of 100 mph and when Ponder pulled him over again he was shot dead. Ponder, a Navy veteran, had been on the state police force less than a year and was stationed at the state police post in Mayfield after graduating from the Kentucky State Police Academy.
Johnson-Shanks was found Monday after a massive manhunt in woods near I-24, near where the shooting had occurred. Troopers saw him with a firearm, Thomas said, and instructed him to drop his weapon. He ignored commands and aimed the weapon at officers, one of whom shot him, police said. He was taken to hospital in nearby Princeton, where he died.
"He was trying to help them out, and for an unknown reason, the driver fled," Thomas said.
"At the initial stop, it was his intent to put them all in a hotel without having to apprehend the driver," he added.
Ponder made the initial stop because the suspect was driving 103 mph while heading westbound on Interstate 24, Thomas said.
Police investigators were still trying to piece together what spurred Johnson-Shanks to flee during the initial stop, Thomas said. Johnson-Shanks had four passengers: two adult women and two young children. Neither of the other adults in the car had a driver's license, Thomas added.
"At that point, the suspect leaned out of the driver-side window and fired multiple rounds at the trooper's car, striking the hood, the windshield and striking our trooper," Thomas said.
An 18-year-old woman in the car, Johnson-Shanks' niece, Ambrea R.J. Shanks of Florissant, was charged with first-degree hindering prosecution or apprehension and taken to jail Monday, police said.
Late Monday afternoon, several dozen people from law enforcement agencies and the public formed a semi-circle for a vigil on the front lawn of Ponder's police post. As flags fluttered at half-staff, prayers were said, and visitors walked around afterward shaking the hands of law enforcement officers who attended.
"These guys go out every day and lay their life on the line," said Ronnie Stinson, who participated in the vigil. "And people need to respect them for that."
Shawn McGuire, a St. Louis County police spokesman, said Johnson-Shanks had been arrested in August 2014 for failing to appear in an unspecified case. In May of this year, investigators began searching for him for questioning in the theft of lottery tickets.
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear called the shooting a "tragic reminder of the risks that our law enforcement officers face every day just by putting on their uniform and doing their job."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.