Officers in Florence, Kentucky arrived at the scene of a mass shooting as it was still underway, according to Police Chief Jeff Mallery. Seven people were shot, with four of them dead, in the tragic shooting at a party on Friday night.
In a press conference given on July 6, Mallery said that the party was for one of the victim’s son, who was turning 21 years old. The alleged shooter, 21-year-old Chase Garvey, was not invited to the party, per Mallery, but did know those who were there.
“He just showed up,” Mallery said in a press conference you can see in its entirety at WXIX. “Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of the victims.”
Sharing that his department had never dealt with anything of this magnitude, per WXIX, Mallery said that his officers received multiple calls of an “active shooter” in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Shortly before 3 a.m. local time, police responded. “When officers arrived, they could still hear gunshots,” Mallery said. “They approached the residence and saw multiple victims. Partygoers told the police that the suspect had fled.”
On the scene, police reported seeing multiple victims, including two in the front yard. Four were pronounced dead at the scene. The victims include the celebrant’s mother Melissa Parrett, 44, as well as Shane Miller, 20, Hayden Rybicki, 20, and Delaney Eary, 19.
The surviving victims were transported to the hospital. They were listed as critical but stable, per WLWT. Mallery said that they are all expected to make a “full recovery.”
“We train on this, hoping it would never happen, but unfortunately, we’ve been touched like so many departments and cities,” Mallery said.
Partygoers were able to provide a description of Garvey’s vehicle, as they knew who he was, and police “quickly” found his vehicle. When they attempted to stop him, he instead led them on a chase that wound up including the Boone County Sheriff’s Office.
According to Mallery, the pursuit didn’t end until the “the suspect shot himself and crashed his vehicle.” The car wound up in a ditch. Police found the suspect suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and took him to the hospital where he subsequently died.
Mallery said that his investigators believe Garvey went to the party with the intention of committing a violent attack on the people there, but they do not have a clear motive as to why. He also shared that Garvey has a violent record.
Per court records seen by WLWT, Garvey has two previous felony convictions in the state of Kentucky. He was found guilty of rape in the first degree and sodomy in the second degree, both back in 2021.
“We’ve never dealt with this before. We know it’s going on throughout the nation, but this is the first time that we’ve had a mass shooting in Florence,” an emotional Mallery told the media.
“Yeah, it is very emotional. My emotions are for the victims, their families, the officers that responded, everybody that was touched by this situation,” Mallery said.
