EDDYVILLE, Ky. – Funeral arrangements have been made for the Kentucky state trooper who was fatally shot in the line of duty along Interstate 24.
The funeral for Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder has been set for 11 a.m. Friday, at Severns Valley Baptist Church in Elizabethtown.
A burial and interment will immediately follow at Kentucky Veterans Cemetery in Fort Knox. A visitation will be held the day before from 1-8 p.m. at Stithton Baptist Church in Radcliff.
Ponder was shot and killed Sunday night after a traffic stop in Lyon County.
Kentucky State Police officials said he was shot by 25-year-old Joseph Johnson-Shanks, of Missouri. Johnson-Shanks was pulled over for allegedly speeding at 103 miles per hour.
Once Ponder made the traffic stop, he found that Johnson-Shanks' license had been suspended. Two women, who were also in the car, did not have a license with them; so Trooper Ponder, was going to put them all up in a hotel for the night, allowing them time to have someone pick them up.
While Ponder was making those arrangements, Johnson-Shanks fled the scene, and a brief chase ensued.
At some point, Johnson-Shanks stopped abruptly forcing Ponder to hit the suspect's car. That's when Johnson-Shanks leaned out of the driver's side window and fired several shots that struck the cruiser and Ponder.
Ponder was rushed to Caldwell Medical Center in Princeton. He died from his injuries shortly after 11:30 p.m.
The 31-year-old had been on the force since January 2015. Ponder, a native of of Rineyville, was also a U.S. Navy veteran.
Johnson-Shanks was shot and killed by police early Monday morning after allegedly refusing to put down his weapon. He was found in a secluded, wooded area not far from Interstate 24.
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