Bardstown, Ky., Police Chief Rick McCubbin believes police officer Jason Ellis was ambushed Saturday by someone who waited for him in the early morning hours while he was on his drive home, reports the Louisville Courier-Journal. Whoever killed Ellis is believed to have waited on top of an embankment overlooking a parkway exit ramp and fired down at Ellis after he got out of a police cruiser to pick up debris left on the road,
Ellis, 33, was wearing a bullet-resistant vest and died of multiple shotgun blasts. “We believe that he was the target,” McCubbin said, because “this was methodical, precise, planned and executed in a perfect fashion, unfortunately.” McCubbin said there are still no suspects and no clear motive for why Ellis, the department's only K-9 officer, was shot to death after he dropped off someone he had arrested at the jail and was heading home. Because the exit where Ellis was killed is so remote and few people would be using it at that time of night, investigators believe whoever shot him knew he'd be driving there and targeted him specifically, McCubbin said.