OAN’s Abril Elfi
9:34 AM – Sunday, July 7, 2024
A convicted felon fatally shot himself while escaping the police after killing four people at a birthday party in Kentucky.
According to police, the fatal shooting occurred on Saturday just before 2:50 a.m. in the 2600 block of Ridgecrest Drive in Florence, Kentucky, where homeowner Melissa Parrett was celebrating her son’s 21st birthday.
The gunman, identified as 21-year-old Chase Garvey, was not invited to the party.
“When officers arrived, they still heard shots being fired,” Florence Police Chief Jeff Mallery said on Saturday. “When they got to the residence, they saw multiple victims. Partygoers told them that the suspect had fled.”
Police identified the four victims as Parrett, 44; Shane Miller, 20; Hayden Rybicki, 20; and Delaney Eary, 19.
“She was the life of the party,” one neighbor told WLWT. “She was always up for having fun. Swimming in her pool. Having a few drinks. She was a really good woman. And a great mother.”
According to Mallery, two of the victims were discovered in the front yard.
After being taken to the University of Cincinnati hospital, the three injured people were listed as critically ill but stable.
The police did not reveal the relationship between the gunman and the victims.
After providing the police with a description of the car, partygoers identified Garvey, and the police “quickly” located the car near an intersection a few blocks from the house.
Garvey fled after police initiated a traffic stop until he self-inflicted a gunshot wound and crashed into a ditch more than 4 miles away from the mass shooting.
After being transported to a nearby hospital, Garvey was declared deceased.
The motive behind the shooting remains unknown as police continue the investigation.
Garvey was convicted of two felony sex crimes in 2021 for first-degree rape and second-degree sodomy, according to WLWT.
“We never dealt with this before; I know it’s going around the nation, but this is the first time we had a mass shooting in Florence, so yeah, it is very emotional,” Mallery said. “We train on this, hoping it would never happen, but unfortunately, we’ve been touched by so many departments and cities. This is the first mass shooting in Florence, so it’s understandably emotional for everyone involved.”
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