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GREG TRAVIS / Ledger & Times
Kentucky State Police Trooper Dean Patterson watches a home this morning on Elm Grove Road following a shooting overnight at the residence. |
Suspect ID'd, being sought
By TOM BERRY
Staff Writer
ALMO, Ky. -Kentucky State Police continue to investigate the scene of a shooting at 779 Elm Grove Rd. north of Murray near the Almo community that resulted in the death of one man and injuries to two others.
Dean Patterson, a spokesman for Kentucky State Police Post 1 in Mayfield, released the names of the victims in the shooting mid-afternoon Wednesday afternoon. Patterson identified 60-year-old Jerry Eldridge Sr. as the only fatality. However Eldridge's son, Eddie Eldridge, 33, and Melissa Price, 35, both suffered gunshot wounds and were taken to Murray-Calloway County Hospital for treatment.
Hospital officials said this morning that Eddie Eldridge was transferred to Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. Vanderbilt officials declined to provide information concerning Eldridge this morning because his injuries were related to a crime. Price was admitted to MCCH, but was later discharged.
An unnamed juvenile was also in the home at the time of the shooting, but was reportedly not injured, according to Patterson.
An autopsy on Jerry Eldridge Sr. Wednesday morning at the state forensic lab in Madisonville resulted in a ruling of homicide.
Patterson said a suspect in the crime has been identified but whose name has not been released. That person is being sought, but remained at-large as of this morning.
Patterson said there was no word on a possible motive in the crime, but that investigators are doing everything possible determine why the incident happened.
“The more we talk to the people surrounding the area, the neighbors and the people that were there you can start to develop that, but that's a work in progress,” he said.
The shooting was reported to the KSP officials at 11:50 p.m. Tuesday by a neighbor that apparently heard gunfire. Police arrived at the home to investigate and later cordoned off about a mile of roadway around the house in all directions Wednesday morning while investigators searched for evidence.
Kentucky State Police officers were utilized to secure roadways because the suspect was still at-large.
John Sims, a KSP detective, continued to examine and photograph the area inside and around the house Wednesday afternoon as other troopers carried boxes of apparent evidence from the home to cruisers parked outside. A KSP forensics team from Frankfort remained on the scene for hours earlier in the day combing the residence for evidence.
Police have interviewed neighbors living close around the home including residents in a home less than 100 feet from the scene of the shooting.
Patterson said the department was happy to have some help from Frankfort-based forensic investigators in the crime. He said state-level help was not unusual, particularly with human and equipment resources stretched thin locally by other investigations in the Post 1 District.
“They are always at our disposal,” Patterson said. “We are still in process of investigating a major crime scene in Trigg County (related to a triple homicide there last week). We're still working on that too, so our assets are limited or somewhat stretched.”
Calloway County Sheriff Bill Marcum, who was at the scene Wednesday afternoon, said his office is assisting in any way that it can by providing access to local databases of crime information to aid the investigation.
Marcum told reporters that he was aware that sheriff's deputies had been called to the home in the past concerning other activity, but was not aware of specific information.
The investigation into the cause of the shooting is continuing, according to Patterson. Details that can be made public will be provided as they are made available.
Story created Oct 23, 2008 - 11:34:43 EDT.
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