Police: Suspect in killing of trooper shot dead

Associated Press

EDDYVILLE, Ky.

A Kentucky state trooper who made a traffic stop was trying to arrange for lodging for the vehicle’s occupants when the driver took off, starting a tragic chain of events that led to the deaths of the lawman and the suspect, police said Monday.

Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder, 31, was shot by the suspect a short time later during a second stop late Sunday in a rural area of western Kentucky, said Trooper Jay Thomas, a state police spokesman.

Ponder, a Navy veteran, had been on the state police force less than a year.

The suspect, 25-year-old Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks of Florissant, Mo., ran away and was found hours later after a massive overnight manhunt in a wooded area about 9 miles from the initial stop and less than a mile from where the trooper had been gunned down, Thomas said.

Johnson-Shanks drew a weapon at a state police trooper, ignored commands to drop his weapon and was shot, Thomas said. He died later at a hospital.

Ponder made the initial stop because the suspect was driving 103 mph while heading westbound on Interstate 24, Thomas said Monday night.

Thomas said at the first stop, Ponder discovered Johnson-Shanks’ operator’s license was suspended and neither of the other adults in the car had a driver’s license. Thomas said Ponder was trying to make arrangements for a hotel for the night so someone could come for Johnson-Shanks and the others.

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. Another woman and two young children also were in the car, police said.

“He was trying to help them out, and for an unknown reason, the driver fled,” Thomas said.