Lance Storz, the man charged with shooting and killing three cops while wounding several others in what officials described as an “ambush” on law enforcement, was indicted Monday on 20 charges.
Storz’s charges include three counts of murdering a police officer, six counts of attempting to murder a police officer, seven counts of wanton endangerment against a police officer, two counts of first-degree assault, one count of fourth-degree assault and one count of assaulting a service animal.
Storz was scheduled to have a preliminary hearing Monday afternoon but that was canceled because of the indictment.
Murdering a police officer can be punishable by death in Kentucky if someone is convicted. So is the murder of two or more people.
The prosecutor, Commonwealth’s Attorney Brent Turner, said there is a process to go through in deciding whether to seek the death penalty, including a careful review of the evidence and consultations with the families of the victims.
Turner said he would make a decision in the coming months on whether to seek the death penalty if Storz is convicted.
Storz, 49, lived on Main Street in Allen, a town of fewer than 200 residents surrounded by hills a few miles from Prestonsburg. He had moved there from Florida with his wife and young daughter about 18 months ago.
His landlord, Paul Blackburn, said Storz had been a truck driver and told Blackburn he picked the area to live because it was central to the area he covered on the job. But Storz had a heart attack after moving to Allen and hadn’t been able to work as a truck driver since, Blackburn said.
Several residents of Allen said Storz was personable. He was quick to help other people, cooked food for neighbors and helped look after neighborhood kids, according to various accounts.
But in a complaint signed by his wife to get an emergency protective order against Storz, she said she told Storz two days before that she had been approved to move into an apartment away from him. He became irate and said he wouldn’t let her leave him, she said.
She said Storz trapped her in a bedroom, threw her around the room and slapped her, and sexually assaulted her. He brandished a pistol and demanded that she beg for her life and their daughter’s life, according to the complaint.
”Lance said he has nothing to lose and is ‘all in,’“ his wife said in the complaint.
She also said he told her “I would never leave him outside of a body bag” and that he would kill their daughter as well.
Police went to the home to check on Storz’s wife after she contacted a relative out of state and said she needed help, and that person called local police. Floyd County Sheriff John Hunt said Storz’s wife ran to officers when they arrived.
She said Storz was sleeping inside. Police took Storz’s wife for a medical examination and later to a shelter with her daughter.
She obtained an emergency protective order. When four officers went to serve the order later that same day, Storz allegedly opened fire on them without warning from his house.
The house is on a dead-end street. The street is too narrow at some points for two cars to pass, including in front of the house, and there is a river behind it, so it can’t be reached by road from that side. The house also is elevated over the street.
Floyd County Judge-Executive Robbie Williams, a former U.S. Marine and Kentucky National Guard soldier, said the location provided an ideal field of fire from a “nearly unbreachable position.”
“It was an ambush,” Williams said.
Storz allegedly shot sheriff’s deputies William Petry and Darren Lawson, killing Petry and wounding Lawson in the leg.
Local officials said Deputy Dusty Newsome dragged Lawson to safety, but no one could reach Petry as Storz fired a barrage of bullets into police vehicles and buildings.
Storz had a .308-caliber rifle and AR-15 assault rifles, Williams said.
”Everyone’s pinned down,” he said.
One officer crawled under a running cruiser for protection and suffered carbon-monoxide poisoning, and a Kentucky State Police officer was hit by a bullet but unharmed because of his body armor, Williams said. At one point, Storz came out of his house and shot and killed a police dog, Drago, that was in one of the cruisers, Williams said.
The county emergency manager and a constable suffered facial and eye injuries after they arrived and Storz shot into their vehicles, Williams said.
Constable Gary Wolfe, bleeding and blinded in one eye, walked down a side street and a resident, David Jones, helped him across the railroad tracks to police officers, Jones said. Williams had called state police to let them know it was Wolfe coming to them.
Ralph Frasure, a captain with the Prestonsburg Police Department, was hit by gunfire as he approached on Main Street to try to help other officers. He died at the scene.
The emergency manager, Joe Reynolds, had pulled his truck across Main Street to block traffic and was shot, Williams said.
Jacob Chaffins, a Prestonsburg Police Department officer, pulled Reynolds into the back of an SUV but was hit in the head by a shot fired from more than 200 yards away, Williams said. Chaffins died the next day.
”He gave his life to save Joe’s,” Williams said.
Storz ultimately surrendered. Hunt said police officers are aware that they can run into danger at any time, but the officers wouldn’t have expected someone to open fire on them with a high-powered rifle without warning.
”They just open the door and open up on them,” Hunt said of the gunman. “You couldn’t prepare, you couldn’t imagine it.”
Floyd County Attorney Keith Bartley said the officers did their jobs properly.
”You can’t deliver every piece of paper by a SWAT helicopter,” Bartley said. “They just ran into a monster.”
Williams said that in the wake of the shootings, he has talked with Ray Jones, judge-executive in neighboring Pike County, about getting an armored vehicle available to both counties so police would have a way to get to officers wounded or pinned down.
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