Updated: Man found dead, woman seriously injured in a Lexington shooting
Lexington police are investigating a shooting in a gated community of Lexington that left a 26-year-old man dead and a 22-year-old woman seriously injured.
Lt. Daniel Burnett with the Lexington Police Department said the shooting happened at approximately 11:40 p.m. in the 4900 block of McAtee Lane. Officers found the man dead and the woman seriously hurt when they arrived to the scene.
The man was declared dead at the scene, according to Burnett. His name was Ethan Boler Hatfield, the Fayette County Coroner’s Office confirmed. The coroner’s office said Hatfield died from a gunshot wound, but the circumstances of his death were not confirmed.
“This is an ongoing death investigation,” the coroner’s office said in a press release. “The manner of death will be determined by further investigation of evidence.”
The woman who was shot is 22, police said. Her injuries were serious but not life threatening, police said.
While police didn’t give an exact address, records from the Fayette County Property Valuation Administrator indicate there is only one home on the block: A $3.4 million house that was previously the site of a gruesome 2017 assault on a drug “mule” hired to transport marijuana from Colorado to Kentucky.
Hatfield, who was the son of Chevrolet dealer Rod Hatfield, was previously convicted in that assault at the family’s home. He was one of four men convicted in the beating and sentenced to prison time before receiving shock probation. The victim in the assault was working with the suspects to traffic marijuana, according to court records.
The men assaulted the victim after he told them police seized marijuana from him during a traffic stop in Kansas. He told them he was cooperating with authorities, but the four suspects didn’t believe him and said they were assaulting him in an effort to get him to tell the truth, according to court records.
The men made the victim strip naked and robbed and beat him at gunpoint, according to court records. He was terrorized, told that his face would be blown off and that he and his family would be killed, according to narratives found in the court record. He was beaten with pliers, a hammer and a gun stock, was made to snort a Xanax pill and was robbed at gunpoint.
The home has previously been noted as one of the most valuable houses in Lexington.
Police are not currently searching for a suspect, Burnett said, but he didn’t release additional information on the incident. He said the investigation is still active.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
This story was originally published December 9, 2022 at 6:55 AM.
