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UPDATE: The Kentucky State Police has identified the suspect as Jecore King of Eight Mile, Alabama. The KSP says after fleeing from a trooper that pulled King over near the 61-mile marker of Interstate 65 and asked King to step out of the vehicle after detecting the possible presence of marijuana, King led police on a pursuit up I-65 North that reached speeds of over 130 miles per hour. King crashed the vehicle near the 85-mile marker and fled on foot into a nearby cornfield while armed with a handgun. He was apprehended after a search that involved the Elizabethtown Police Department’s special response team and the KSP’s aircraft branch. King faces multiple charges including fleeing and evading police, wanton endangerment, and reckless driving among other charges. He has been lodged in the Hardin County Detention Center.

Area law enforcement agencies assisted the Kentucky State Police in the apprehension of a suspect that fled officers on Interstate 65 Thursday.

“From my understanding, the initial incident started in Hart County after a traffic stop,” said Hardin County Sheriff John Ward. “Evidently, the suspect got into an altercation with the trooper, and the suspect fled in his vehicle. The pursuit continued on north to around the 85 mile marker near Glendale, where a collision occurred. The driver fled the vehicle on foot.”

The sheriff’s office and the Elizabethtown Police Department joined the search for the suspect at around 4 p.m. Officers searched on foot and the sheriff’s office used their drone to assist in the search of a nearby cornfield.

The EPD said in a statement the suspect was apprehended shortly before 7 p.m. without further incident.

The incident caused traffic delays on both I-65 and U.S. 31W as officers searched for the suspect.

Kentucky Fish and Wildlife is announcing special restrictions for deer hunting in Breckinridge, Hardin, and Meade counties due to the establishment of a chronic wasting disease surveillance zone after a deer at a farm in Breckinridge County tested positive for the disease.

The Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to establish the zone during a special meeting Tuesday.

KFW Director of Wildlife Ben Robinson said the establishment of the zone and the restrictions are based on the agency’s CWD Response Plan.

“When you have a detection in a captive facility, you immediately draw a five mile radius around that detection, which becomes your management zone, and then you draw a 15 mile radius around that detection, and any county that touches that 15 mile radius then becomes part of your surveillance zone,” Robinson said.

There is no change to the deer hunting season or to bag limits, however baiting or feeding of deer in the zone is prohibited, as is the rehabilitation of deer or other cervids. Deer carcasses and high-risk parts cannot be removed from the three-county zone.

“That would really be head, skull with brain matter, spine,” Robinson said. “It is okay to debone meat and remove deboned meat or cleaned skull products, cleaned skull caps with no brain matter on those.”

Deer can still be moved within the zone, so a hunter that harvests a deer in Breckinridge County can still bring it to Hardin County.

Hunters can help KFW monitor for CWD by bringing the heads of legally-harvested deer to self-serve sample drop-off sites or by requesting a sample mail-in kit. Robinson said unlike in the Western Kentucky detection zone, testing will be voluntary.

“Because this is really a different landscape, when you’re looking at these three counties, we have a lot of deer, but we have a lot of deer hunters, and we have a high harvest, which is very much to our advantage, so we can really rely on our hunters to help us collect these samples using some alternative methods,” Robinson said.

KFW will be hosting a public meeting at the Breckinridge County Extension Office on November 7 to provide more information. Learn more about CWD monitoring on the KFW website.

The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their second meeting of the month Tuesday.

The first reading was held on an ordinance for enhanced 911 emergency telephone services within Hardin County. The ordinance would approve a $15 increase to the county 911 fee on next year’s tax bills, bringing it from $50.58 to $65.58. Hardin County Judge/Executive Keith Taul said with a budget shortfall for 911 and a hardware refresh on the horizon, the funds are needed to keep up with increases in use.

“We have seen an increase in staffing since 2022 due to a 112 percent increase in administrative calls, 206 percent increase in NCIC transactions, 42 percent increase in CAD reports created, and 114 percent increase in self-initiated calls,” Taul said.

The court approved on second reading an ordinance that amends the zoning text for medical cannabis businesses in unincorporated Hardin County. The amendment limits the businesses to I-1 (light industrial) or I-2 (heavy industrial) zones. An amendment for the 2024-2025 county budget was also approved on its second reading.

Hardin County Coroner Pat Elmore reported that the coroner’s office responded to 202 cases in August and September, and the number of overdose deaths year-to-date is 19, which is down from 37 year-to-date last year although Elmore noted toxicology is pending on a few cases.

Elmore said the county’s quick response team has been working hard to get established.

“Our policies and procedures are complete,” Elmore said. “We have MOUs ready to complete with the police and EMS, and (the rapid response officers) have both completed their national training for that, so they’re actually certified. We’re going to be the only coroner’s office, I think, in the nation that has a QRT, so we’re really proud of that.”

A QR code that links to info on the QRT and to resources available for people who are struggling with, or know people who are struggling with, addiction can be found in several county publications that will be going out soon as well as on the Quick Response Team – Hardin County Facebook page.

The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet November 12. The next Hardin County Town Hall Forum will be held in the fiscal courtroom on November 7.