A gunman on Monday fatally shot two women believed to be his girlfriend and her mother outside a courthouse in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, before attending a hearing on an emergency protective order, according to police.
The Elizabethtown Police Department said the incident began in a parking lot near the Hardin County Justice Center courthouse shortly before 9 a.m. ET, where the suspect, identified as 46-year-old Christopher Elder, shot and killed two and injured a third in an “ambush-type style” attack before fleeing the scene.
The victims have been identified as 37-year-old Erica Riley of Elizabethtown and her mother, 71-year-old Janet Riley of Hardinsburg, who died from her injuries at a hospital. According to authorities, Erica Riley had been in a relationship with Elder and had just attended a court hearing with him earlier that day.
In addition to both women being shot, a third person was also shot. The male victim, whose name has not been released, was injured and is reportedly related to the Riley family, the Associated Press (AP) reported. He is currently in stable condition.
Newsweek reached out to the Elizabethtown Police Department via email on Monday for comment.
Bruce Schreiner/AP
The AP said police began their search for Elder as they quickly located Elder’s vehicle on a highway in western Kentucky, leading to a high-speed pursuit that ended with negotiators attempting to de-escalate the situation. However, the standoff ended when Elder shot himself. He was transported to a hospital and remains in critical condition, police said.
In the aftermath of the shooting, local schools were placed on a “soft lockdown” as a precautionary measure, though police have since confirmed that the incident was isolated, the AP reported.
Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory characterized the shooting as a domestic incident and noted those involved were at the courthouse for an an emergency protective order hearing.
“It’s just terrible, it’s a tragedy,” Gregory, who previously worked in law enforcement, told ABC News. “Domestic situations are never predictable. They often end in horrible situations like this. Unfortunately, that happened in downtown Elizabethtown today.”
While details of the protective order remain unclear, the shooting comes as an average of 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States with intimate partner violence alone affecting more than 12 million people every year, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
The incident remains under investigation as authorities continue to look into the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
