Schools closed for 3rd day in rural Kentucky amid manhunt
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A rural Kentucky school district has canceled classes for a third straight day out of fear that a fugitive accused of shooting at law officers in two states might be lurking.
The manhunt enters its fifth day Wednesday. The suspect, Floyd Ray Cook, faces an attempted-murder charge in Tennessee, where he is accused of shooting and injuring an officer Saturday. The officer was saved by his bulletproof vest. Less than two hours later, Kentucky authorities recognized his truck and tried to stop him. Cook tried to flee but wrecked his vehicle and then fired at a state trooper, police said. The trooper was not hit and returned fire.
Cook ran into the hilly, wooded countryside in Cumberland County, Kentucky, which borders Tennessee.
Kentucky State Police Trooper Billy Gregory said on Tuesday that officials were following leads including the possibility that Cook now has a companion, 50-year-old Troy E. Wayne, of Raywick, KY. The 62-year-old Cook, facing an attempted-murder charge in Tennessee, might have access to a beige 2006 Ford Ranger with a Kentucky license plate, Gregory said.
"It's a vehicle that we could not account for through the course of the investigation that someone said he may have had access to," Gregory said, adding that Cook may now also be accompanied by another man.
He described the two as possible "associates." The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Marshals Service joined in the hunt for Cook, a convicted rapist and robber who authorities warn should be considered "armed and dangerous."
No sightings of Cook have been reported to police since Sunday, when authorities say he pulled a gun on a teen in Burkesville, in southern Kentucky, reports CBS affiliate WTVF. According to the station, police said the teen was in his car with his girlfriend, pulling up to his father's house, when Cook came out of the woods, told him to stay in the car and pulled a gun on him.
The boy told the station he recognized Cook from media reports.
Police reportedly cornered Cook on a nearby road and said they believed he was barricaded inside the teen's father's home. SWAT teams swarmed the home Monday after an hours-long standoff, but Cook wasn't inside, reports the station.
Later that night, that house was burned to the ground, reports WTVF. Burkesville Mayor Keith Riddle told the station that officials believe the house was intentionally set on fire.
Meanwhile, classes were canceled again Wednesday in the Cumberland County school district. Superintendent Kirk Biggerstaff said he didn't want students waiting for buses in sparsely populated neighborhoods that overlapped the search area.
Cook was believed to be on foot after the shootout with the Kentucky trooper.
"He's as dangerous as they come," Gregory said. "I would say anyone that has any contact with him is in danger."
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation added Cook to its Top Ten Most Wanted list and described him as armed and dangerous.
Cook is described as a 6-foot, 160-pound white male with blue eyes, gray facial hair and gray, balding hair. His possible companion was described as a 5-11, 220-pound white male with green eyes and short brown and gray hair.
Cook was convicted of a series of crimes including rape, burglary, robbery, assault and riot in Kentucky in the 1970s and 1980s, according to state corrections department records.
He was convicted of raping a 19-year-old in Marion County in 1971, records showed. He was required to register as a sex offender and remain on parole for the rest of his life.
Cook was indicted in July on charges of first-degree trafficking in methamphetamine and tampering with physical evidence, according to Hardin County court records in Kentucky.
He was scheduled for arraignment in August but did not appear. He listed an address in Lebanon, Kentucky, on his sex offender registration form.
Several months ago, the Marion County Sheriff's Office, making routine checks on the sex offenders in the county, discovered he was no longer living there, said Sheriff Jimmy Clements.
Deputies took out a warrant for his arrest and started searching for him. They discovered he was living at an address in the tiny town of Raywick, Kentucky.
They staked out the home but were never able to catch him.