The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Police say man was shot after refusing to drop gun





Funeral services will be held in Neon today (Wednesday) for a 58- year-old Letcher County man who was shot and killed after he pointed a gun at a Kentucky State Police trooper.

Police say Terry Wayne Taulbee, of Jackhorn, was shot by KSP Trooper Ben McCray, a 15-year veteran officer, after Taulbee displayed a gun, approached McCray and refused to comply with a demand to put the gun down.

Trooper Tony Watts, spokesman for KSP Post 13 in Hazard, said Trooper McCray was conducting a welfare check in Jackhorn when the shooting occurred on Sept. 25.

Watts said that when the Taulbee raised the gun in the direction of McCray, McCray fired. Taulbee was pronounced dead at the scene by the Letcher County Coroner’s office.

McCray was not injured. The incident is under investigation. As is normal practice when such an event occurs, McCray was placed on administrative leave until the investigation of the shooting is finished.

Taulbee’s longtime girlfriend told WYMT-TV in Hazard that Taulbee had been drinking and had threatened her before police were called.

“He called me in, and pointed a gun to my head. He said, ‘I’ll kill you, then I’ll kill myself,'” Lowe told the television station.

Funeral services for Taulbee were to be held at noon on Sept. 30 at the Neon Pentecostal Church. Burial will be in the Wright Cemetery at Seco.

Taulbee was the son of Clare Taylor Potter of Tennessee and the late Emmitt Clark.

Surviving other than his mother are his wife, Sheila Lowe; two daughters, Angel Cress of Isom and Hattie Niles of Neon; one son, Brian Taulbee of Goose Creek; five grandchildren, Jonathan Cress, Joshua Cress, Katherine Taulbee, Noella Niles and Roger Niles.

Letcher Funeral Home, Whitesburg, had charge of arrangements.


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