Kentucky Town Hails Its Fallen Police Chief

Jun 18, 02:17 PM

Current Headlines: STANTON, Ky. (AP) -- A giant American flag hoisted by two firetruck ladders marked the entrance Sunday to a memorial service for a small-town police chief who law enforcement authorities say was gunned down by a family friend during a traffic stop.

Hundreds of law-enforcement officers from every corner of Kentucky filled Powell County High School where Clay City Police Chief Randy Lacy was remembered as a man who treated everyone with respect -- even the criminals.

That may have ultimately proven fatal. Lacy, 55, was shot point blank in the back of the head in his squad car Wednesday while making a routine DUI arrest, authorities said.

Lacy, who was familiar with the suspect, Jamie Barnett, 37, and had arrested him numerous times, handcuffed him in the front rather than behind his back. Barnett said in an interview last week with The Associated Press he doesn't know how he got hold of Lacy's gun and was too high on drugs to remember the events leading up to the shooting. Barnett is being held without bond on a murder charge.

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