Skip to footer

After week-long manhunt, Kentucky residents can 'breathe easier'

The fervent search for convicted rapist Ray Cook had residents along the Kentucky-Tennessee border on edge. Area schools were closed for three days as officers combed the area.

|
Kentucky State Police/AP
Floyd Ray Cook is seen in an undated photo provided by the Kentucky State Police. Mr. Cook was killed in a shootout with police early Friday after eluding authorities for a week.

A massive Kentucky and Tennessee manhunt ended in a shootout early Friday.

Floyd Ray Cook was wanted by police for allegedly shooting a police officer and opening fire on a Kentucky state trooper. He was killed in south-central Kentucky after being located by law enforcement and engaging in a shootout, Billy Gregory, the Kentucky State Police public affairs officer, told The Associated Press.

Two state troopers and a federal marshal found Mr. Cook hiding in an embankment south of Burkesville, Ky. Cook was armed with a handgun and engaged the police. No officers were wounded in the exchange, and Cook was pronounced dead at the scene.

Cook had been eluding police for the past week. It began Saturday afternoon, after he was pulled over for a traffic stop in Tennessee. Police say Cook shot the officer during the traffic stop and fled to Kentucky.

An hour later, Cook was confronted by a Kentucky State Police trooper who recognized the vehicle. Police say Cook opened fire on the trooper after crashing the car, then fled once again. The state trooper was unharmed.

Authorities believed they had located him late Wednesday after a car associated with Cook was spotted at a gas station in Tennessee, Tennessee Highway Patrol Lt. Bill Miller told The Associated Press.

After approaching the car, the driver attempted to flee, rammed two police cruisers, and almost collided with an officer on foot, according to the US Marshals Service.

After driving into a ravine, the driver and passenger of the car fled, Miller told the AP. Neither turned out to be the fugitive, but they were close associates, Katy McCarty and her boyfriend, Troy Wayne. Both were arrested on suspicion of engaging in a shootout with police officers at a gas station.

Cook had a history of rape, robbery, burglary, assault, and riot convictions. He was wanted in Hardin County in relation to methamphetamine trafficking and tampering with evidence.

Cook’s presence in the border area between Kentucky and Tennessee put residents on edge. Authorities described him as “armed, dangerous and desperate,” and schools in the area shut down for three days in the past week over concerns about the fugitive.

“I think they’ll all breathe easier knowing there’s no longer a threat,” Mr. Gregory said Friday.

This report includes material from The Associated Press and Reuters.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to After week-long manhunt, Kentucky residents can 'breathe easier'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/1030/After-week-long-manhunt-Kentucky-residents-can-breathe-easier
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe