Updated: Ballistic vest stopped 3 shots fired at a KY trooper. Lexington man charged
A 22-year-old Lexington man is charged with attempted murder of a police officer in connection with a shooting that injured a Kentucky State Police trooper in Harrison County Friday afternoon.
Kentucky State Police said in a tweet Saturday afternoon that the trooper, whose name has not been released, was recuperating at home after being released from University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital.
The trooper was shot six times, state police said, but three of the shots hit his ballistic vest. One of the shots hit his taser, one hit his body-worn radio and the sixth shot actually struck him.
Aside from the attempted murder charge, LeeQuan T. Taylor is charged with first-degree assault and possession of a handgun by a convicted felon. He was taken to the Bourbon County Regional Detention Center after his arrest Friday night. His bond was set at $1 million, according to jail records.
Kentucky State Police have not released any details about what led up to the shooting on Delta Court in Cynthiana.
After the dispatch center for the state police post in Dry Ridge was notified of the trooper-involved shooting at 4:16 p.m., an officer with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife arrived and took the trooper to Harrison Memorial Hospital, state police said.
From there, he was taken by ambulance to the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital.
State police said Saturday that Taylor was taken into custody with help from the Lexington Police Department; Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; United States Secret Service and University of Kentucky Police.
State Police Commissioner Phillip Burnett Jr. commended those agencies, as well as the staffs of the hospitals that treated the trooper, in a news release Saturday.
”Our agency is humbled by the outpouring of calls, prayers and concern from the citizens we serve daily,” he said.
The state police Critical Incident Response Team was still investigating the shooting Saturday.
Herald-Leader reporter Jeremy Chisenhall contributed to this story.
This story was originally published January 29, 2022 at 1:23 PM.
