LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- More than a dozen school districts shut down Monday across a wide swath of southeastern Kentucky as a grueling search stretched into a third day for a gunman who opened fire on an interstate highway and wounded five people over the weekend.

The grueling manhunt stretched into a third day Monday for Joseph Couch, 32, in the interstate shooting that hit 12 vehicles. Couch sent a text message vowing to "kill a lot of people" less than 30 minutes beforehand, authorities said in an arrest warrant.

“I’m going to kill a lot of people. Well try at least,” Joseph Couch, 32, wrote in the text message, according to the warrant affidavit filed in court. In a separate text message, Couch wrote, “I’ll kill myself afterwards,” the affidavit says.

The affidavit does not describe the relationship between Couch and the woman who got the texts. The affidavit obtained by The Associated Press charges Couch with five counts each of criminal attempt to commit murder and first-degree assault.

Newly released 911 calls, which began rolling in around 5:30 p.m. Saturday, reveal a chaotic situation.

"They're saying they have had multiple gunshot victims on I-75 southbound, around the 48, they've got EMS in route, the shooter they don't know exactly where he is," said one call.

"The victims have been shot through the windshield," another voice said. "There's a black SUV on the 49 bridge, who they think might be the shooter."

Authorities have been searching a rugged, hilly area of southeastern Kentucky since Saturday evening, when someone began shooting at drivers on I-75 near London, a small city of about 8,000 people located about 75 miles south of Lexington. Kentucky State Police video shows the density of the search area.

Couch was named a person of interest and later a suspect after police recovered his SUV with a rifle case inside on a service road near the crime scene. They later found a semi-automatic weapon nearby that they believe was used in the shooting, said Deputy Gilbert Acciardo, a spokesperson for the local sheriff's office. A phone believed to be Couch's was also found by law enforcement, but the battery had been taken out.

Couch most recently lived in Woodbine, a small community about 20 miles south of the shooting scene.  

Joseph A Couch

Pictured: Joseph A. Crouch.

"People are afraid right now," Michael Stansburgy, special agent in charge of the FBI Louisville Field Office, said Sunday. "They certainly have a right to be. This thing doesn't happen every day."

One business in the area of the shooting, WarZone Paintball near East Bernstadt, was put on lockdown by police while a group was in the middle of a session outside.

"We were all just terrified," said Andrea Chavez, manager of WarZone Paintball. "Everyone was scared. Everyone was just calling their family, their friends, telling them that they're OK."

Christina DiNoto, who witnessed the shooting Saturday while driving on I-75, said Monday that it weighed heavily on her mind.

"To know that he’s still at large — that makes me nervous, honestly," she said.

DiNoto, an IT project manager, said the shooting also unlocked a new kind of fear, "like you have to be scared to even just drive on the highways."

State police Master Trooper Scottie Pennington, a spokesman for the London state police post, said troopers are being brought in from around the state to aid the manhunt. He described the extensive search area as "walking in a jungle" with machetes needed to cut through thickets of woods.

Acciardo said it appears that the attacker planned the shooting for that location because it is very remote and the terrain is hilly, rocky and hard to navigate. The victims were believed to be random, he said.

More than a dozen school districts shut down Monday across a wide swath of southeastern Kentucky as a grueling search stretched into a third day for a gunman who opened fire on an interstate highway and wounded five people over the weekend.

The 911 calls revealed victims were shot in the hip, elbow, face and chest. While tending to victims, law enforcement also tried finding the shooter.

Pennington urged area residents to lock doors, keep porch lights on and monitor security cameras. The search was focused on a remote area about eight miles north of London.

"We're not going to quit until we do lay hands on him," Laurel County Sheriff John Root said Sunday night.

Authorities said Couch purchased the weapon and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition Saturday morning in London. Couch has a military background, said Capt. Richard Dalrymple of the Laurel County Sheriff's Office, having served in the National Guard from March 2013 to January 2019 as a combat engineer who was a private when he left and had no deployments.

Authorities initially said nine vehicles were struck by gunfire, but later increased that number to 12 saying some people did not realize their cars had been hit by bullets until they arrived home.

A Harlan Independent Schools bus with 14 band students on board got stuck in the traffic jam that ensued from the shooting. The students were able to contact family and they couldn't see any of the police activity since it was dark out at that point.

"There was just a general level of concern and anxiousness and really just eagerness to get the bus moving and headed south so that they could be reunited with their families," Superintendent C.D. Morton said.

An online rumor that semitrucks surrounded the bus to protect the kids isn't true, Morton said Monday.

Acciardo said authorities are being inundated with tips from the public and are following up on each one in case it could help them find the shooter. When the search has been suspended at night, specially trained officers have been deployed in strategic locations in the woods to prevent the gunman from slipping out of the area.

"This is tragic, obviously, that somebody would randomly do violent acts," he said. "You hear media things taking place all around our country, but then when it hits home, it's a little bit of a wake-up call."

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