‘He shot me three times.’ Former KY lawmaker gives details on fatal shooting at his home
The former Kentucky lawmaker whose daughter died in a shooting at his home recounted exchanging gunfire with the home intruder, as he told reporters Sunday during a vigil for his daughter that he was “pretty positive” he struck the suspect during the shootout.
C. Wesley Morgan, a former state representative and a retired business man who owns a multimillion-dollar home in Madison County, lost his daughter early Tuesday morning when a man broke into the Morgan family home and opened fire, according to Kentucky State Police. The suspect, 23-year-old Shannon V. Gilday, allegedly killed 32-year-old Jordan Morgan and injured C. Wesley Morgan.
Morgan’s remarks to the media Sunday revealed new details which hadn’t previously been disclosed. Morgan said Gilday climbed scaffolding at the house and kicked a door open, which got him into Jordan Morgan’s bedroom, where she was asleep around 3:45 a.m. Tuesday.
Gilday “shot her probably six, seven, eight times with an AR-15,” C. Wesley Morgan said.
“When he shot her, he killed her of course – that woke me up,” Morgan said. “When I got up, I opened the French doors coming out of my bedroom and confronted him. He’s coming down the steps with his AR-15 dressed in his little army fatigues, and he had a flak jacket on, or a bulletproof vest. At that time he opened fire on me. I immediately hit the floor.
“He shot me three times. I’d been shot twice in the arm and once in the hip.”
Morgan said he slammed the French doors shut, and his wife went into their 14-year-old daughter’s bedroom. Morgan said he made efforts to defend himself while she went to their daughter’s room.
“I scampered across the floor behind my bed, I came up with a Sig (Sauer) 9 millimeter out of my top drawer,” he said. “I laid down on my bed and I shot him 11 times. I shot at him 11 times. Now did I hit him 11 times? Probably not, but I’m pretty positive I did hit him.”
State police said Gilday was uninjured when he was taken into custody Monday morning.
Morgan said Gilday then went into the master bathroom. Morgan said he retrieved a second handgun, crawled away from the bed and took cover behind a couch.
“I engaged him again when he came out of the master bath, and I think I shot him like eight times,” Morgan said. “I shot at him eight times, but again I’m not positive I was hitting him because he had a flak jacket on.”
Morgan said he thought he struck Gilday the first time the two exchanged fire. When the two exchanged fire again, Morgan had his cell phone and called 911. They exchanged fire while Morgan was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher, he said.
Morgan said Gilday retreated out the front door, and Morgan fired at Gilday as he fled the home. He wasn’t sure if Gilday was fleeing because he’d been hit or because Morgan called 911.
“I was in my underwear, engaged in a firefight in my master bedroom at my house,” Morgan said. “This is a low life piece of dog crap that I hope I get to engage again. Because the next time it will be a totally, totally different outcome.”
Morgan said he didn’t know who Gilday was before this happened, and he addressed the possibility that Gilday was trying to break into the Morgans’ home because they have a fully-stocked bunker underneath their house.
Gilday’s mother on Friday released a statement in which she said Gilday wasn’t in a good mind state and had been worried about nuclear war.
“My son Shannon Gilday, who I love so dearly, has not been of sound mind the last couple of weeks, distraught with the certainty a nuclear war is imminent,” Katie Gilday said. “He spoke of building a bunker and the CIA following him. I tried to get him psychiatric help but to no avail.”
Sgt. Robert Purdy, a spokesperson for state police, previously said investigators “were aware of (the bunker) being a possible motive” but didn’t know for sure.
“Until we locate Gilday and speak to him about a motive, I am unable to say with certainty what his motive might have been,” Purdy said.
Morgan, addressing the media Sunday, said the publicity the bunker received was a problem.
“You guys are mostly what the problem is,” Morgan said, talking to media members outside during the vigil, which took place in Madison County Sunday night. “Because they took, and they made article after article after article over that shelter in my house, which I have a right to build as long as I’ve got legal money that I do it with.
“And you send that out to people like this Gilday, who can’t buy a piece of property worth six-and-a-half million dollars, but it goes to him and all of a sudden he has some kind of fantasy over it. You’ve got to quit putting stuff out, it causes young ladies like my daughter, 32 years old, to get killed.”
Morgan said his daughter was a “brilliant lawyer” and the “sweetest thing that I ever had in my life.”
The bunker under Morgan’s home went viral online after he put the house up for sale and was covered by media outlets. The Zillow listing, as well as other online listings, featured photos of the bunker and listed it as a feature of the home. The bunker got lots of attention after it was shared on the Instagram page “Zillow Gone Wild.”
Shortly after the Morgans and their friends honored Jordan Morgan, Gilday was arrested. State police said he was taken into custody around 4:30 a.m. Monday. His mother had pleaded for him to turn himself in.
This story was originally published February 27, 2022 at 10:57 PM.
