Neighbors of the Kentucky man who allegedly shot five motorists on a rural Kentucky highway say he threatened multiple people in the neighborhood with his firearm — and even told one neighbor, “I’ll just kill you.”
Joseph Couch, 32, who remains on the run after opening fire on Interstate 75 on Saturday, was arrested at his home in Gray, Kentucky, on Feb. 8 on a charge of terroristic threatening following a confrontation with a neighbor, according to a citation obtained by CBS News.
The neighbor had gone to confront Couch, who had thrown a rock at his family’s dog. However, Couch responded by allegedly pointing a loaded AR-style rifle at him and his nine-year-old daughter.
“He went in his house, grabbed an AR-15, pointed it at mine and my daughter’s direction, said next time he would shoot me and my daughter,” the neighbor said. “So, naturally, I went and filed charges on him.”
Charges were dismissed against Couch after the neighbor failed to show up to court.
“They dismissed it because they never notified me that there was a court date,” he told CBS, adding that he said he believes authorities should have taken Couch’s weapons away.
Following the incident, three of the neighbor’s dogs were found dead on his property, including two that had been poisoned.
“He’s threatened more than one person with a firearm in this neighborhood,” he said.
Another neighbor, Donald Causey, 61, said he had a good relationship with Couch up until last week when the suspected gunman allegedly pulled a rifle on him after he walked too close to his property.
“He went back in his house, and he came back out and he pointed his rifle and said ‘I’ll just kill you,’” Causey recalled.
Causey said he didn’t contact the police about the interaction as they had gotten along well in the past, but now regrets that decision in the wake of the shooting.
“This spring we got a long great — I let him borrow my lawn mower a couple times,” Causey said, adding that something in Couch seemed to change more recently, and it seemed like he was struggling with his mental health. “If you talk to him 15 seconds you can tell.”
After the encounter, Causey said he went home to de-escalate things but Couch came back outside with his rifle.
“He put it up on his shoulder like he was marching, and he went around his house about 50 times in a circle,” Causey said. “…He just started marching like he never spoke to us or nothing.”
According to an arrest warrant, Couch allegedly texted someone that his goal Saturday was to “kill a lot of people” before turning the gun on himself. The affidavit said that the woman who received the text messages contacted police half an hour before the shooting to warn them.
Couch is charged with five counts each of criminal attempt to commit murder and first-degree assault for the shootings, which wounded five people.
An intense, multi-agency manhunt has been underway since Saturday, with searchers combing through thousands of acres of dense woods in search for Couch.
The reward for information leading to Couch’s arrest went up to $35,000 on Tuesday, with officials saying there was nothing to indicate Couch had managed to slip away.
“Some people say ‘What if he’s not alive anymore?’ ” Master Trooper Scottie Pennington told reporters on Tuesday. “Well, we’re going to stay in the woods until we find him. That’s our job. If he’s dead or alive, it’s our job to try to find him.”
With Post wires
