Suspect named in Kentucky highway shooter, manhunt ongoing

This breaking news right now on Kentucky, where police are in a desperate after a shooting spree on an int They are looking for this man, Joseph Couch. Police say he is armed and dange This afternoon, investigators say they found his and the suspected weapon he used an AR 15. Authorities say Couch shot in two cars as they passed by on Interstate 75 in rural Laurel County. Five people were wounded in the One of the drivers told CNN about the harrowing exp We just heard this deafening lou and it sounded like a like a rock went through my back window and our ears were ringing and we just looked at each other and we were like, was that a gun And then we're like, That can't be a gunshot because we're driving down the h And there was a white truck that was next to us in the right hand lane. And all of a sudden she slowed down and pulled off to the shoulder. And we thought maybe it was his tire had blown out or someth but it was much louder than a tire blowing out. CNN's Gloria Paz Mino is tracking the latest deve in this case. Gloria, what are you learning? Fred, we're starting to hear from some of the victims. And you can just imagine how chaotic this scene was. You're driving along a highway. You're moving at fast speed and all of a sudden you hear gun And my colleague, Jillian Sykes, actually just spo with one of the survivors of this incident who was injured by the gunfire. Her name is Rebecca Poirier, and she's a 28 year old woman who was driving her car along with her husband and her four year old son. And what you're seeing there is the picture of her car with the window shattered after pierced through it and injured her in the arm. Rebecca is going to be recoverin She was already released from the hospital, but she's one of the five people that were injured during this shooting last night. Now, as you said, the manhunt for this suspect continues and police have identified Josep They believe that he is the susp behind this incident and they are asking people in this community, in the city o to remain vigilant. They believe that they have them cordoned to an ar where they are currently searchi but they're open to the possibil that he may be elsewhere by now. This happened last night and they had to stop the search in the evening hours because of And how how just how difficult this area is. A lot of trees, a lot of scrub, not a whole lot of of light in t for you to be searching at night I want you to listen to the Laur sheriff's office describing some of the injuries that this suspect allegedly caused last night during the sho Take a listen. There were some severe injuries. There was an individual there shot in the face. There was another individual that was shot in the arm of a very severe inju Those were the most severe ladies shot across the chest. They were very significant, very severe injuries. I don't want to lessen that. We not have a fatality, but we certainly had some very serious injuries that will affect these people for the rest of their life. I'm sure. It's it's incredible to hear just how lucky everyone got last We know that an AR 15 was recove Police believe that was the weapon that this man used in this shoot They also recovered his vehicle along with a gun case that was inside the vehicle. They believe that he is armed and dangerous. We also learned in the last hour Fred, that the family of this suspect is cooperating. They live elsewhere outside this But the sheriff's office did say that they are cooperating. He said they have a big task ahead of them in the next severa They're working against the cloc They don't want the sun to go down once again without this person being caught And they're out there working every possible angle. They're using canines, drones, a helicopter, again, over a very wooded area, a difficult to search area, but trying to keep the community at a calm so that they know that this search is ongoing Let's talk more now on this manh with CNN law enforcement contributor and retired supervis special agent for the FBI, Steve Good to see you, Steve. So this is a rural area of Kentu We know now a vehicle confiscate reported an AR 15, which they believe might have been involved here. Now, how do they go about tracin some steps toward their suspect? Well, it's going to be really di I remember back in the FBI when we were looking for Eric Robert Rudolph for over a year in woods similar to this. What you have to consider is that if he had one gun, he's got another gun. If he was shooting at ambush sty at cars before he would shoot ambush style at o So you have a you have a cordon and they say they believe he's within that area, which is pretty impressive. If that's true, that they could be sure of that. But if that's the case, they have to start moving in on and closing the circle in. And each foot you go, you risk you risk losing officers. Beyond that, you're talking to a he knows, any family, anybody, any friends who could t why this happened and where he m And besides that terrain being among the challenges I covered for a very long time in the Nantahala Forest there fo search for Eric Rudolph reporting on you and your colleagues as well. So I understand that. But talk to me about the other challenges here. When law enforcement is urging p to stay inside at the same time, they do need the public's cooper to be able to report anything suspicious if they see. Yeah. And the problem here is, like with Rudolph, they they go into people's homes Sometimes they try to find empty They try to find empty vehicles. That's one of the things they're going to be looking for. The law enforcement is if any cars are missing, any trucks are missing. So when you have people stuck in their homes, it's not easy for them to Obviously, they're not out and about seeing But at the same time, they have to protect themselves in their home and be vigilant and ready to cal because this person, if they're alive and we don't kn but they're going to need food, they're going to need water, and they're going to probably go to a more populated area to get Again, the suspect is being identified as a Joseph Couch. Talk to me, too, about some of t the law enforcement has. I understand they've brought in to help in the search. Drones are going to be very usef But as you know, from from that kind of forested area, it's very difficult to look down Down. I mean, the FBI, police departme we now have we now have clear we have infrared detection We have all these things that are pretty much blocked by The drones can operate, but in a forested area, they're limited in their effecti And so what you're going to be d is is looking at night especially, you're going to be l within the forest horizontally, trying to pick up silhouette, heat, silhouette. The problem there is there are d there are rabbits. The first time you see something like that, you don't even believe how many heat sources you see. So it becomes just a bigger hays and a smaller needle. Oh, I remember that was a gigantic obstacle as And observation during that search for Eric Rudo And then they had to have a fore breaking news. The Laurel County Sheriff's Department saying the search for the gunman they say, opened fire on Interst And Kentucky will be temporarily suspended at Again, the biggest problem that we have up there is the remoteness of the a It's already starting to get a little bit dark. That's that doesn't work in our I'm sure we're going to we're going to go on till dark t Joining us now, CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem. Juliette, I know you were with u last night as this was all unfol Now we're getting a little bit more information. This would be the second night of searching in the woods for the suspect. Clearly, they don't think it's worth it to try to search once it gets dark. What kind of hurdles are they facing right now? Well, part of it is just going to be the sort of producti that can occur in the dark is quite limited. And so they're probably they are just balancing the benefits of continuing this as compared to just suspending it for six, 7 and then starting again in the m Look, it is much harder to hide for long periods of time than it was during the Unabomber We have drones, we have signal intelligence, people have cell phones. They ge It is hard to hide out for long periods of time unless it was planned for. And so part of this is just pati I remind people in Maine during that mass shooting that the perpetrator went missing for over 48 hours. He died from a self-inflicted wo So lots of things can happen. And the fact that he's not caught in the first day or so doesn't mean that he's gone fore And authorities say they found t AR 15 and several magazines. Yes What does that mean for the continuing threat? Yeah, I think a couple of things One is it's very rare to find someone in these instanc who has only one gun. So there are there's other weapo that we should anticipate that this is a person who is armed and dangerous. That's why the community has bee not to engage anyone, not to look out for him on your If there's anything suspicious t to call it in. In all of these cases, there are additional arms. And in this case, this is someone who clearly knows the damage that nature can do. It is lucky and only luck that people were not killed on the highway from either bullets or in response to the bullets. In terms of automobile accidents I actually can't believe it, given the number of bullets that we had seen. And and so he is he is he is someone we should anticipate has more weapons. And so ultimately, I think for anyone that's kind of in that area, of course, I'm sure they're nerv And on edge tonight. But but as you were alluding to in your first answer, typically it is it is hard to just disappear the Typically, they are able to ultimately track this person down, even though it means even though it may take more tim It sounds like just because they're suspending, that's it, because it's dark, etc., they're obviously still working hard to find this person. That's exactly right. Look, they have a name. They know where he lived. They know who his colleagues, friends, fam They they know what the car look They have his phone number. They have drones. They have all they have ways to monitor the ph And whether he's contacted and when they have credit cards, presumably ATM cards. In this day and age, it is very difficult to disappea Look, he's trying to disappear. One hopes and go into hiding, but that is hard to do for long periods of time. He may have set up some way to m his ability to stay hidden, whether he hoarded water. Because a survivalist, we don't But but in the end, my confidence is just based on history that in in most of these cases the person screws up, gets lonel needs something, and therefore e where he is to law enforcement. All right, Juliette Kayyem, always good to have your experti Thanks so much. Thank you,