Man Fatally Shoots Girlfriend, Her Mother Near Courthouse As They Sought Protective Order

A Kentucky woman who was seeking a protective order against her boyfriend was fatally shot alongside her mother on Monday morning outside the courthouse in Elizabethtown before her hearing.

Erica Riley, 37, and her mother, Janet Riley, 71, were identified bymultiple news outlets as the women who were killed by Christopher Elder, 46, outside the Hardin County Justice Center.

A third family member was wounded, Elizabethtown Police Chief Jeremy Thompson told reporters on Monday. Police did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request Tuesday for an update on their condition.

After a pursuit and standoff with police, Elder fatally shot himself.

Court records cited by WAVE-TV in Louisville said that Erica Riley and Elder were scheduled for a court hearing that morning on a request for an emergency protective order. Riley said that Elder had been abusive toward her and her two children for a year and a half.

The document, obtained by WAVE-TV, described an incident in which Riley said Elder was drunk and screaming at her daughter and that when she tried to intervene, he hit her twice in the jaw.

Thompson told reporters that two children who were part ofthe protective order case were also there when Riley and her mother were shot. The children were unharmed.

Elizabethtown police spokesperson Chris Denham told WDRB-TV in Louisville that Janet Riley was taken to the hospital after the shooting, where she died of her injuries.

Thompson told reporters that Elder drove off before authorities arrived.

Several law enforcement agencies, including the Kentucky State Police, chased Elder. The Hopkinsville Police Department said he “actively pointed a rifle at pursuing officers multiple times.” He then drove into a church parking lot,