Kentucky state trooper fatally shot during traffic stop
A Kentucky State Trooper has been fatally shot during a traffic stop while trying to help a vehicle's occupants.
Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder, 31, had initially pulled over the car on Interstate 24 around 10:20 pm Sunday. Upon realizing that the driver's license was suspended, he offered to arrange a hotel for them, a state police spokesman said.
"He was trying to help them out, and for an unknown reason, the driver fled," Jay Thomas said.
A statement released early Monday said 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, Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks, got out of the car and started shooting at Ponder, hitting him multiple times.
Kentucky State Police found the suspect in a wooded area close to Interstate 24, near where he allegedly shot the trooper, police said.
Johnson-Shanks had aimed his gun at troopers and refused to drop it, leading one to shoot him, officials said. He died at a medical center in Princeton, Kentucky.
"This is a very sad occasion for us," Thomas said in a news conference. "It's tough on us, and it's tough on our families."
Ponder's death is the latest in a string of fatal shootings of officers in the United States this year, which observers say are a backlash against excessive use of force in arresting suspects.
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