The two owners of a pawn shop in Danville, Kentucky and one other person are dead after a shooting at the store on Friday morning.
Danville police said in a statement that they believe the shooting occurred during a robbery of the store. Most of the small town was locked down following the shooting, including local schools and nearby Center College.
Danville Police Chief Tony Gray said that authorities eventually lifted the lockdown even though the shooter remained at large because no other shootings had occurred, according to USA Today. They stated that, at the time, they did not believe anyone else was in danger.
The store owners 34-year-old Michael Hockensmith and his wife 38-year-old Angela Hockensmith were pronounced dead inside their pawn shop ABC Gold Games & More, along with a customer, 60-year-old Daniel P. Smith.
Local newspaper The Advocate-Messenger reported that the Hockensmiths had only purchased the pawn shop two months ago.
The couple’s two children, a nine-year-old and an 18-month-old, were in the store at the time of the shooting but they were not harmed. The Messenger reported that the children have been placed with their grandparents.
Danville authorities are currently searching for a heavyset white male in his 40s or 50s who was wearing a green camouflage jacket and escaped the pawn shop through its garage door before authorities arrived.
Katy Nenninger of Lexington, Ky. told USA Today that she was on her way to work when the shootings occurred. "I got to my office about five minutes later and received an automated call from Boyle County Emergency Service and it said to stay inside and away from windows. It also said to avoid the downtown area.
"You don't expect something like this to happen in Danville.”