| courier-journal photo |
“Someone planned this, and someone planned to shoot someone at that spot and at that time,” Kentucky State Police Master Trooper Norman Chaffins said at a news conference.
Ellis, 33 — a K-9 officer and seven-year veteran of the department — stopped on the Exit 34 ramp from the parkway sometime before 2 a.m. to remove the debris, Chaffins said.
The officer was shot multiple times with a shotgun, Chaffins said. The shotgun had originally been identified as a 12-gauge, but Chaffins would not verify that information Sunday, citing an ongoing investigation.
State police have not determined if Ellis was the target of the shooting, or just happened to stop at the wrong place at the wrong time, Chaffins said. The target could have been another police officer or simply anyone who stopped, he said.
Investigators have determined with some certainty where the shooter was standing at the time of the shooting, Chaffins said, but he would not elaborate.
Police did not release any details about what kind of debris caused Ellis to stop.
Ellis, who was attacked so quickly that he never had the chance to pull his gun, was found dead at the scene. His vehicle’s emergency lights were still flashing.
Passing motorists stopped and called police using the radio in his cruiser — a pool vehicle not equipped to capture video or audio — when they found him on the ground outside the cruiser, Chaffins said. They called it in as a traffic accident, but when a trooper arrived at the scene he “quickly noticed that this was no traffic accident,” Chaffins said.
The shooting took place about 10 miles from the closest ramp onto the Blue Grass Parkway from Bardstown, where Ellis would likely have been coming from after ending his shift early Saturday morning.
The exit, Springfield Road, would have taken Ellis to Bloomfield and ultimately his home in Chaplin.
Chaffins said no suspects have been identified, adding that investigators are not ruling out the possibility of multiple suspects. “We’re looking at the possibility of one, possibly two or three persons involved with this.”
Little information has been uncovered on the events leading up to and immediately after the shooting, Chaffins said.
Bardstown Police Chief Rick McCubbin said at the news conference that he knew of no current on-the-job incidents or threats made against Ellis. He said investigators will comb through Ellis’ work during the past year to see if there were any situations or persons that could lead to a suspect.
McCubbin said it is standard procedure to call dispatch for a stop like the one Ellis made Saturday morning, even if it is something small such as moving debris out of the road. But he said it’s not uncommon for an officer not to call in that kind of situation.
“Something that quick, you think, ‘I’ll stop, get this out of the road and go on,’ ” McCubbin said.
Investigators are looking for anyone who might have information about Ellis’ death, Chaffins said. It doesn’t have to be something from the night of the shooting — it could be a suspicious car parked on the ramp days before, someone walking along the ramp, anything out of the ordinary, he said.
Even the smallest amount of information could turn the case around, Chaffins said. “Something minor can often lead to something very big, and that’s the tip we’re looking for.”
Ellis is survived by his wife and two sons.
His funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Parkway Baptist Church of Bardstown, with burial in Highview Cemetery in Chaplin. Visitation will be held Wednesday from 2 to 8 p.m. at the church.
Source-courier-journal