HARDIN CO., Ky. (LEX 18) — Two people are dead in Elizabethtown after a man opened fire in a parking lot in front of the Hardin County Justice Center. Eyewitnesses identified 46-year-old Christopher Elder as the shooter.
“It was actually quite wild,” said Daniel O’Dell, who visited the scene after the events had already unfolded. “I got a phone call from my wife stating that there was a shooting right next to the courthouse. The first thing that I thought of was calling my friends over here at icon engineering and making sure that they were okay.”
“We were on scene within a minute, located three victims,” Elizabethtown chief of police Jeremy Thompson said. “While we were down there, the suspect had fled the scene.”
Elder’s girlfriend, 37-year-old Erica Riley, was killed at the scene. Her mother, 71-year-old Janet Riley, later died from her injuries. The third victim in the shooting is stable. There were also two juveniles on the scene.
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“This was a domestic related incident,” Thompson said. “There was a hearing at the courthouse this morning stemming from previous incidents, and we believe it was isolated to the individuals involved.”
A person familiar with Erica said Elder waited near the back of the parking lot before ambushing the group.
“This is certainly a rare occurrence,” Thompson added. “We had three homicides in all of 2023.”
Police tracked Elder to Western Kentucky. According to Hopkinsville Police, they engaged in negotiations for around 90 minutes until Elder attempted to take his own life. He is in critical condition.
