Suspect in I-75 shooting has arrest record that includes alleged threats, DUI, vandalism

Joseph Allen Couch, the suspect in Saturday’s mass shooting on Interstate 75 in Laurel County that wounded five people, has gotten into worse and worse trouble over the past decade.

Public records reviewed by the Herald-Leader show that Couch, 32, lists his home address as Carp Lane in Woodbine, a small Whitley County community three miles south of Corbin. But he’s also associated with a home on Sam Street in Gray, an unincorporated community five miles east of Corbin in Knox County.

Couch was arrested by Kentucky State Police on Feb. 8 and charged in Knox District Court with third-degree terroristic threatening, a misdemeanor that was dismissed March 26.

According to a complaint warrant filed in that case, a man named George Price said that three days earlier, Couch threw a rock at his dog. When Price walked over to question Couch, according to the warrant, Couch cursed, went inside his Gray home, came back out with an AR rifle “and told him that he would kill him and the dog.”

Price told police his 9-year-old daughter was standing beside him during the confrontation.

Thomas Miceli, a Barbourville attorney who represented Couch in the case, said Monday the charge was dismissed when the alleged victim failed to appear in court for a hearing.

On July 23, 2020, Couch was charged by Corbin police with driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident, according to court records. Couch, who was driving a pickup truck, crashed into a vehicle that was exiting a Mexican restaurant parking lot and continued on his way, police said.

When police found Couch driving a short time later, he admitted he was drinking “tall boys” that evening and was on his way to the store to buy more when he hit the vehicle at the restaurant, police said. Breath tests indicated he should not have been driving, police said, but no blood-alcohol level was identified in court records.

The DUI charge was amended down to public intoxication, to which Couch pleaded guilty. The leaving the scene of an accident charge was dismissed. He paid a $50 fine and $173 in costs.

On June 9, 2015, Couch pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal mischief and third-degree unlawful transaction with a minor.

According to news accounts at the time in The Times-Tribune, the Corbin newspaper, the 22-year-old Couch and a juvenile were arrested and charged with a string of spray-paint vandalism incidents around Corbin, including at local parks, the public library and the high school football stadium. They were caught on security video cameras.

After briefly having been jailed, Couch was ordered to pay $1,000 to the Corbin School Board and $500 to the city of Corbin as restitution for the damage.

He also had to perform 200 hours of community service at the Corbin Public Works Department, where he stayed on in 2016 for regular paid employment for a short period of time, officials said Monday.

Couch worked for a brief period in 2014 as a $9-an-hour 911 dispatcher for Whitley County, handling emergency calls, according to public records obtained by the Herald-Leader under the Kentucky Open Records Act. But he was fired because of poor job performance, such as his failure to record callers’ addresses and other important information, according to Couch’s county personnel file.

“The dispatcher has a good work ethic and does put forth a good effort. However, I do not feel it is appropriate for him to continue taking emergency calls in this dispatcher center,” shift supervisor Dorman Patrick Jr. wrote in a May 18, 2014, note that was included in Couch’s personnel file.

This story was originally published September 9, 2024 at 4:36 PM.

John Cheves

Lexington Herald-Leader

(859) 334-0802

John Cheves is a government accountability reporter at the Lexington Herald-Leader. He joined the newspaper in 1997 and previously worked in its Washington and Frankfort bureaus and covered the courthouse beat. Support my work with a digital subscription