Kentucky

PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky man who killed three students and wounded five more in a school shooting 25 years ago told a parole panel on Tuesday that he is still hearing voices like the ones that told him to steal a pistol and shoot into a crowded high school lobby in 1997.

The two-person panel hearing Michael Carneal’s testimony deferred a decision until Monday, when the state’s entire parole board will meet and could decide to grant his parole request, defer his next parole decision to a later date, or determine that he must spend the rest of his life in prison.

PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (AP) — Derrek McIntosh was left homeless twice within weeks — first by floodwaters that destroyed his eastern Kentucky home, then when a fire burned down the house he stayed in with relatives.

Now that he’s moved into a temporary travel trailer, McIntosh said he no longer worries where he’ll lay his head at night. And the 34-year-old Republican gives the credit for that to a Democrat — Gov. Andy Beshear.

When flooding swept through parts of Appalachia in late July, McIntosh said, the governor moved quickly.

HENDERSON, Ky. (AP) — Two people were killed and two were wounded in a shooting at a homeless shelter for men in western Kentucky, and a suspect has been arrested, authorities said.

Officers responded Thursday evening to a report of an active shooter at the Harbor House Christian Center, the Henderson Police Department said in a statement on social media.

The shooting occurred around 7:40 p.m. when about 15 people were inside the facility, Henderson City Commissioner Robert Pruitt told The Courier & Press in Evansville, Indiana.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A former Louisville police detective who helped write the warrant that led to the deadly police raid at Breonna Taylor’s apartment has pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge.

Federal investigators said Kelly Goodlett added a false line to the warrant and later conspired with another detective to create a cover story when Taylor’s March 13, 2020, shooting death by police began gaining national attention.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department announced civil rights charges Thursday against four Louisville police officers for their involvement in the drug raid that led to the death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman whose fatal shooting contributed to the racial justice protests that rocked the U.S. in the spring and summer of 2020, officials announced Thursday.

The charges are another effort to hold law enforcement accountable for the killing of the 26-year-old medical worker after one of the officers was acquitted of state charges earlier this year.

GARRETT, Ky. (AP) — This tiny sliver of a town off a state highway in eastern Kentucky has been home to Brenda Francis and her husband, Paul, for decades.

Paul Francis was born 73 years ago in this house, a yellow and brown one-story, which like many dwellings in Garrett is nestled in a valley between tall, forested hills. The retired school teacher loves it here, and the couple was gifted the house by his parents about 40 years ago.

WHITESBURG, Ky. (AP) — The raging floodwaters that left dozens dead or missing in eastern Kentucky also swept away some of the region’s irreplaceable history.

Appalshop, a cultural center known for chronicling Appalachian life for the rest of the world, is cleaning up and assessing its losses, like much of the stricken mountain region around it.

JACKSON, Ky. (AP) — Evelyn Smith lost everything in the floods that devastated eastern Kentucky, saving only her grandson’s muddy tricycle. But she’s not planning to leave the mountains that have been her home for 50 years.

Like many families in this dense, forested region of hills, deep valleys and meandering streams, Smith’s roots run deep. Her family has lived in Knott County for five generations. They’ve built connections with people that have sustained them, even as an area long mired in poverty has hemorrhaged more jobs with the collapse of the coal industry.

JACKSON, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky’s governor said it could take weeks to find all the victims of flash flooding that killed at least 16 people when torrential rains swamped towns across Appalachia.

More rainstorms are forecast in coming days as rescue crews continue the struggle to get into hard-hit areas, some of them among the poorest places in America.

JACKSON, Ky. (AP) — Krystal Holbrook’s family started moving possessions to higher ground long before dawn, racing to save them from the rapidly rising floodwaters that were menacing southeastern Kentucky.

Her family scurried in the dark to move vehicles, campers, trailers and equipment. But as the water kept rising Thursday — leaving at least eight people dead and hundreds without homes in Kentucky -- they began to worry that they might run out of higher ground.