On a late Sunday evening in September 2015, Kentucky State Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder, a 31-year-old male, initiated a traffic stop on Interstate 24 in Lyon County. The vehicle, driven by 25-year-old Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks of Missouri, was stopped for speeding. Inside the car with Johnson-Shanks were his 18-year-old niece, Ambrea R.J. Shanks, another woman, and two young children.
Trooper Ponder discovered that Johnson-Shanks was driving with a suspended license and, in an act of kindness, was attempting to arrange for a hotel for the family.
For reasons that remain unclear, Johnson-Shanks suddenly fled the traffic stop, leading Trooper Ponder on a high-speed chase. The pursuit ended abruptly when Johnson-Shanks stopped his car, causing Ponder's cruiser to make contact with the rear of his vehicle. At that point, Johnson-Shanks fired multiple rounds into the trooper's car, striking the hood, windshield, and Trooper Ponder several times. Ponder was transported to a nearby hospital where he died from his injuries shortly before midnight on September 13, 2015. A Navy veteran, he had been a state trooper for less than a year.
Following the shooting, Johnson-Shanks fled the scene on foot, prompting a massive manhunt involving numerous law enforcement agencies, helicopters, and K-9 units. The search focused on a rural, wooded area near the interstate. Hours later, authorities located Johnson-Shanks. When confronted, he refused to drop his weapon and aimed it at the officers. A trooper then fired, fatally wounding Johnson-Shanks, who later died at a hospital.
In the aftermath of the incident, investigators arrested Ambrea R.J. Shanks. She was charged with first-degree hindering prosecution or apprehension. The other woman and the two children who were in the vehicle were questioned but not charged. It was later revealed that Johnson-Shanks was a convicted felon and was prohibited from possessing a firearm at the time of the shooting.
