BY
HARRODSBURG, Ky. -- The only female police officer in Harrodsburg's history was killed in a middle-of-the-night exchange of gunfire outside an automotive parts factory.
Officer Regina Woodward Nickles was shot twice early Wednesday while investigating a report that a man was crawling around the parking lot at Trim Masters Inc., which makes car-seat covers. CP:J.P. Works
The suspect, John Paul Works, 22, of nearby Boyle County, was awaiting trial on August charges that he attacked his roommate, a Trim Masters employee, with a golf club, held a gun to his head and threatened to kill him.
Mr. Works was hospitalized in fair condition at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington after being shot by Harrodsburg Officer Eric Barkman.
Officer Barkman had responded in a separate cruiser to the industrial park where the shooting of Officer Nickles occurred.
Officer Nickles was the first female officer killed in the line of duty in Kentucky, state police Trooper Mike Coyle said at a news conference outside the city's police headquarters.
Harrodsburg police Chaplain Terry Cornish described the slain officer, who turned 45 Saturday, as a "very honest, very caring, very sincere person."
"She always tried to make a difference in people's lives," Chaplain Cornish said. "I think she believed that was what the Lord wanted her to do."
Officer Nickles, a mother of two and a stepmother, was the Republican nominee for Mercer County sheriff on the November ballot, looking to unseat incumbent Democrat Ralph Anderson.
She had just begun her midnight-to-8 a.m. shift when she was asked to check out the report at the Trim Masters plant.
A Trim Masters spokesman, Larry Carter, said workers had reported a suspicious person in the parking lot.
When the plant manager went to investigate, the man fled into a field and the manager went back inside and called police, Mr. Carter said.
Harrodsburg Police Chief Ernest Kelty Jr. said Officers Nickles and Barkman were together when they found the suspect hiding in a small hollow in the ground. "The suspect suddenly turned and fired" a handgun, hitting Officer Nickles twice in the neck, above her bulletproof vest, Chief Kelty said. Officer Nickles never had a chance to draw her gun, said Chief Kelty.
Officer Nickles and Mr. Works both were taken to James B. Haggin Hospital in Harrodsburg, where she was pronounced dead around 1 a.m. EDT.
Mr. Works was transferred to the UK Medical Center in critical condition, but his condition was upgraded later Wednesday morning. Officer Barkman was not injured.
State police had not brought formal charges against Mr. Works Wednesday night. Under state law, killing a police officer in the line of duty can bring the death penalty.
Mr. Works already faces assault and wanton endangerment charges following a complaint by Willard Quinn, who lived with Mr. Works and two other men at a house in northern Mercer County earlier this year.
In court documents, Mr. Quinn said Mr. Works attacked him with a golf club Aug. 2, sending Mr. Quinn to the hospital with a broken arm and collarbone. Mr. Quinn also said Mr. Works pointed a gun at his head, saying "he should go ahead and kill" Mr. Quinn.
Mr. Works was arrested Aug. 4 and released on $5,000 bond pending a trial. He was ordered to have no contact with Mr. Quinn.
According to a relative of Mr. Quinn who asked that his name not be used, Mr. Quinn worked at Trim Masters on the same line as a girlfriend of Mr. Works'. The relative said Mr. Quinn and Mr. Works had been friends but had a falling-out around the time of the August incident over some remarks made by Mr. Quinn. The relative said that as far as he knew, the dispute between Mr. Quinn and Mr. Works had nothing to do with the girlfriend.
Mr. Anderson, Officer Nickles' opponent in the sheriff's race, told The Advocate-Messenger of nearby Danville, "When I got the call last night about the shooting, my first thoughts weren't about politics but about a person I knew, respected and worked with who had been cut down in a meaningless act of violence."
Meanwhile, at Trim Masters, Mr. Carter said counselors would be made available to any workers traumatized by the shooting but that the company planned to carry on with a normal second shift Wednesday evening.
