MURRAY, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky man who fatally shot a sheriff’s deputy last month used a handgun that he had kept hidden after being arrested, state police said.
The man pulled out the gun and shot Calloway County Chief Deputy Jody Cash after asking to be taken outside for a smoke break, police said.
Officers returned fire, killing 30-year-old Gary Rowland.
Rowland was being interviewed at the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office when he asked to smoke a cigarette, The Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
Kentucky State Police said in a release the deputies took Rowland outside, and “while smoking, Mr. Rowland produced a handgun, which had been concealed.”
The shooting occurred about an hour after Rowland was arrested on drug and firearms-related crimes in Benton on May 16.
Cash and another deputy from Marshall County were interviewing Rowland for an investigation that was not related to the outstanding warrants, according to state police.
Cash was a 22-year veteran of law enforcement. Before working in Calloway County in 2020, he spent eight years with the state police and had served as assistant chief of the Murray State University Police Department.
