A Bardstown Police officer was shot and killed early Saturday morning, apparently while on his way home from work, and the killer was still at large late in the day, Kentucky State Police said.
Officer Jason Ellis, 33, of Chaplin, was a seven-year veteran with the Bardstown Police Department, said Norman Chaffins, spokesman for the Kentucky State Police.
Police were investigating Ellis' death as foul play and while they did not have a suspect, they were processing evidence from the scene, Chaffins said. He declined to disclose what kind of evidence police had, or where or how many times Ellis had been shot.
Ellis is survived by his wife and two sons.
According to Bardstown Mayor Bill Sheckles, Ellis was the first Bardstown officer murdered in the line of duty. Bardstown Police Chief Rick McCubbin did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.
State police received a call at 2:53 a.m. reporting an accident involving a Bardstown Police officer on the Exit 34 ramp from Bluegrass Parkway in Nelson County, Chaffins said.
A state trooper arrived by 3:16 a.m. and soon discovered there was no accident, but found the uniformed officer dead outside a police vehicle.
Ellis was driving home in a "pool car" that was not his assigned vehicle and not equipped to capture video or audio, nor had he spoken with dispatchers about assisting anyone on the ramp, Chaffins said.
"He was not on an emergency call or anything," Chaffins said. "We are not sure why he stopped."
Detectives have also interviewed passersby who came upon the scene, but did not witness the shooting, Chaffins said.
Ellis, the Bardstown police K-9 officer, did not have his dog with him at the time, Chaffins said.
The exit ramp where Ellis was found was closed throughout much of the day while officers investigated.
A motorcade of about 50 cars from various agencies escorted the officer's body to the medical examiner's office in Louisville. Police closed Broadway in Louisville shortly before 11 a.m. as the motorcade drove to the office on Barret Avenue.
Some officers wept as his body, covered in an American flag, was taken into the building.
"He was active in the community and quickly earned the respect of his peers. He served Bardstown with dignity and honor," the 27-officer Bardstown Police Department posted on its Facebook page.
Ellis' brother in-law, Nathan Phillips, is also a Bardstown Police officer, Sheckles said.
"They're a close knit family, but this is still hard for them, the shock of it all," Sheckles said after meeting with Ellis' family Saturday morning. "I've never been accused of being at a loss of words, but in a situation like that, all you can do is tell them you're there for them and give them a hug."
Sheckles said he and Ellis bonded over baseball because they both played in college. Ellis, who was from Cincinnati, played for Cumberland College, now University of the Cumberlands. It was there he met his wife, also a student, who was from the Bloomfield area, Sheckles said.
Ellis graduated from Glen Este High in Cincinnati in 1998 and the West Clermont School District in Ohio released a statement Saturday afternoon mourning Ellis' death. He was a star baseball player for the school and went on to play for the Cincinnati Reds farm system after college.
"Jason Ellis was a great kid and a great man," John Hatfield, who was Glen Este baseball coach when Ellis played there, said in a statement released by the district. Hatfield declined to make himself available for further comment, the district said.
At Glen Este, Ellis was first-team all-city in 1998 and player of the year in the Queen City Conference.
At Cumberlands, Ellis compiled "one of the most impressive career baseball resumes of any player ever to suit up" for the school, according to a bio of Ellis on its website, tinyurl.com/o6weecq. He enrolled in 1999 and when he left four years later, he was the all-time career leader in hits, batting average, doubles, home runs, runs batted in and games played.He went to work for the Bardstown Police Department in 2006.
"I'm just so sorry his family has to experience this loss when he was just doing his job," said former Bardstown Mayor Dixie Hibbs, who served as mayor and councilwoman for 23 years for the town of 11,700.
Hibbs, who was at the police station for much of the morning, said fellow officers are taking Ellis's death in different ways, with many in "shock or disbelief."
Although Ellis' mailing address was in Bloomfield, he and his family actually lived in a small community called Chaplin. The two towns and its residents are tied closely together, said Ted Shields, a Chaplin resident and chief of the Bloomfield Fire Department, where Ellis' father in-law once served as a volunteer firefighter.
"We're a resilient people, and we'll get past this," Shields said.
Many residents are praying for Ellis' family and wondering if the assailant - or assailants - are still in the area, said Mark Mays, a Bloomfield city councilman.
Mays described Bloomfield, population 800, as "literally a one red light town" and a "close community" where many people knew Ellis, who was active coaching youth sports.
"Everybody is just concerned about what happened this close to our community," he said of the killing about two miles south of Bloomfield. "...There's not a lot of types of crime like this around here. Small time drug use, breaking and entering, vandalism - maybe. But something like this? No."