By Greg Kocher
Lexington Herald-Leader
LANCASTER, Ky. — An exchange of gunfire Wednesday ended with one person dead and a Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy wounded, Kentucky State Police said.
The Lincoln County deputy shot was Colby Reik, said Garrard County coroner Daryl Hodge. Reik is also a full-time Lexington firefighter.
Welby O. Mullins, 64, of Hustonville, was killed, state police said. Reik, who was shot in the arm, was taken to University of Kentucky Hospital.
The shooting occurred shortly before 4 p.m. at a Sunoco gas station on the northern edge of the Pleasant Retreat shopping center on U.S. 27 just south of Lancaster, state police spokesman Trooper Robert Purdy said.
Purdy said the shooting happened after a traffic stop. The Lincoln County sheriff’s office had been looking for a vehicle as part of an investigation. The deputy spotted it and followed it north into Garrard County, but Purdy did not characterize it as a pursuit.
The sheriff’s office “had been looking for somebody for several days. Today they had a tip that the person was inside the vehicle” that was eventually stopped, Purdy said.
Two people were inside the vehicle stopped at the gas station. The driver followed verbal commands from the deputy, but the passenger exchanged fire with the deputy, Purdy said.
As of 7:15 p.m., the driver who obeyed verbal commands had not been arrested or taken into custody, Purdy said.
Wednesday’s shooting is the first to be investigated by a new state police unit called the Critical Incident Response Branch, which is designated to investigate officer-involved shootings, Purdy said.