Cops shoot and kill alleged gunman who murdered rookie Kentucky state trooper
Published September 14, 2015 / FoxNews.com
Authorities said 25-year-old Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks, of Missouri, was located in a remote rural area near I-24 around 7 a.m., following an all-night manhunt. Johnson-Shanks was armed with a handgun and did not comply with several commands to drop his weapon, according to Sgt. Mike Webb.
“That gave the trooper closest to him no choice but to fire his agency-issued weapon, striking him multiple times,” Webb said.
Johnson-Shanks was arrested while police waited for EMS at the scene and he died from his injuries at a local hospital at 8:23 a.m. Webb said he wasn’t aware of any statements Johnson-Shanks may have made prior to being shot.
A statement released early Monday said that Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder, 31, was pronounced dead at a Princeton, Ky., hospital after being shot multiple times late Sunday night. Ponder had been a state trooper since January of this year.
The statement said that Ponder was conducting a traffic stop Sunday on the westbound side of Interstate 24 in the western part of the state at about 10:20 p.m. local time. The statement said that the driver who was being stopped took off from the scene, with Ponder pursuing him for approximately nine miles.
At that point, according to the statement, the suspect’s car abruptly stopped, causing Ponder to crash his car into the vehicle. Police say the driver, Johnson-Shanks, got out of the car and started shooting at Ponder, hitting him multiple times. Bullets also struck the hood and windshield of the police cruiser, authorities said.
Related Image
Kentucky State Police Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder and suspect Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks. (Kentucky State Police)
After the shooting, authorities said that Johnson-Shanks fled the scene on foot and was considered armed and dangerous. Interstate 24 was shut down in both directions early Monday to assist in the search.
“Pray for our guys that are out here,” Kentucky County Executive Wade White told reporters, according to KVFS.
Ponder, from Rineyville, was a U.S. Navy veteran who was stationed at the police post in Mayfield after graduating from the academy, KVFS reported. He reportedly had plans to move closer to home within the next year.
SEE FOX NEWS REPORT BELOW:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=4483955208001&w=466&h=263<noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href="http://video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a></noscript>” href=”http://http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=4483955208001&w=466&h=263<noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href="http://video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a></noscript>”>http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=4483955208001&w=466&h=263<noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href="http://video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a></noscript> aligncenter wp-image-19348″ src=”https://whatdidyousay.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/suspect.jpg” alt=”suspect” width=”830″ height=”595″ />
Report: Suspect in Kentucky trooper’s shooting was active in #BlackLivesMatter protests
Posted at 10:26 pm on September 14, 2015 by Twitchy Staff
It didn’t take long for Shannon Watts of Moms Demand Action to blame the NRA’s agenda of “guns anywhere, anytime, for anyone” for the fatal shooting of Kentucky State Trooper Joseph Ponder. Suspect Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks, 25, was reportedly killed by police during a subsequent manhunt in a wooded area close to Interstate 24.
Rather than pointing fingers at the NRA, Watts and others might want to look into the #BlackLivesMatter movement. According to the New York Daily News, photos posted to Johnson-Shanks’ Facebook page show him not only at several protests over the death of Michael Brown, but at Brown’s funeral as well. Other photos show him with his arms raised along with the caption, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot.”
A war on cops?
The Daily News also reports that two women and two children were in the car with Johnson-Shanks when he shot Ponder. Johnson-Shanks’ 18-year-old niece was arrested and charged with first-degree hindering prosecution or apprehension.
What Did You Say? 
Rowan County, Ky., is a lesson for America in how not to resolve social conflict. The local head clerk is sitting in jail, and a judge has ordered her deputy clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in her absence. When the Supreme Court redefined marriage for the nation in an activist decision this June, it took the issue out of the democratic process and made it much harder for citizens to navigate our differences on this fundamental institution. Both sides of the debate knew the decision would have significant social effects. For civil servants like clerks who issue marriage licenses, the implications were also immediately personal.
Rowan County clerk Kim Davis could not, as a matter of religious conviction, issue same-sex marriage licenses. Davis’ further dilemma is the fact that her name is attached to every county marriage license, and she believes issuing them to same-sex couples would constitute precisely the kind of endorsement of same-sex unions her faith forbids. Because of that, her office stopped issuing all marriage licenses after the Supreme Court decision.
A lawsuit followed and a federal court on August 12 ordered her to issue licenses despite her faith-based objections. She did not comply with the order, and at a hearing Thursday the judge sent
Davis to jail for contempt of court, even though the plaintiffs had specifically asked she be given fines instead of jail time. The judge ordered the deputy clerks to issue marriage licenses or also face contempt of court and five out of six said they would comply. Meanwhile, the judge has told Davis she will stay in jail because she will not comply with his orders.
This situation could have been avoided. This problem would not have even existed in Kentucky and many other parts of the country had the Supreme Court allowed states to deal with the marriage question democratically—with the give-and-take that naturally leads to compromises, the balancing of competing interests, and a diversity of solutions over time. Instead the Supreme Court redefined the institution for the entire country in one fell swoop but did not say how our constitutional guarantee of religious liberty would be reconciled with the new order of things.
Conflicts have been warned about for years, and all four dissenters to the Supreme Court’s marriage decision predicted dire consequences for religious freedom.
Given the inevitable challenges to this fundamental freedom, it is imperative that we seek solutions to navigate the complex road ahead. In this particular case, there are a number of potential ways forward so that same-sex couples can get licenses as required by the courts and Kim Davis can be released from jail without having to agree to resign or violate her conscience.
One help in finding the way forward is Kentucky’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which requires the government to avoid substantially burdening religious expression absent a compelling government interest. There is no compelling government interest in keeping Kim Davis’s name on the licenses instead of the name of the deputy clerks who are willing to issue them. If it’s “just a little form”—as Davis’ critics would like to suggest—then change the form, not the beliefs.
There are a number of other possible accommodations that could be adopted by the legislature, courts, or executive agencies in the state. Davis is not interested in stopping all same-sex marriages in her county. She is only asking that she not be forced to participate in them in a way that violates her beliefs.
Opt-out systems like this work in many walks of life. In fact, we already have examples of such options being adopted in the marriage licensing context. For example, North Carolina allows objecting clerks to choose to not get involved with marriage licensing at all, and the state will guarantee that someone will take their place if needed. Hawaii has an online registration system for marriage licensing that gets rid of many of these concerns.
Whatever the method, people of good will want a solution that leads to better outcomes than the impasse in Rowan County this week. Reaching such a solution in Kentucky is still feasible—and desirable, to respect the legally protected interests of the plaintiffs and the religious conscience of Kim Davis.