A suspect involved in a robbery and an officer shooting in Hopkinsville early Monday morning is in police custody in Montgomery County. Public Information Officer Sandra Brandon with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office identified the man arrested as 28-year old Keith Allen Kuzyk.
Brandon tells the News Edge they were notified of the shooting by authorities in Christian County who believed the suspect had fled into Montgomery County and requested mutual aid. During the investigation, she says they received information the suspect, later identified as Kuzyk, was possibly in the River Road area of Montgomery County. When deputies were responding to the area they spotted the suspect’s vehicle.
After Kuzyk was apprehended, Brandon says he was taken to the hospital to be medically cleared pursuant to protocol. She adds Kuzyk will be charged with felony evading and lodged in the Montgomery County Jail under a $100,000 bond. She says he will be extradited to Christian County.
According to The Leaf-Chronicle, on Sept. 1, 2011, Kuzyk fled after shoplifting at a Dollar General on Highway 48 and during the pursuit he shot at deputies in Montgomery County with a rifle as many as 20 times.
The pursuit stopped when he lost control of the truck and wrecked. He was ejected from the truck and had severe injuries. He pled guilty and was sentenced to eight years in prison with six years for aggravated assault and two for evading arrest, to be served concurrently. But he only had to serve 30 percent of that sentence.
On Aug. 16, 2011, Kuzyk was also been charged, along with Mark DeWayne McMurry, with first-degree premeditated murder and especially aggravated robbery in the August 2011 shooting death of 27-year-old Douglas “DJ” Ramey on 45 Crossland Avenue.
According to The Leaf-Chronicle, Kuzyk and Mark DeWayne McMurry killed Ramey in the “perpetration” of a robbery. Both were accused of using a .25 caliber handgun to take narcotics and personal property from Ramey.
Kuzyk entered a plea deal to testify as a state witness. He pled guilty in 2014 to the lesser charge of facilitation of criminally negligent homicide, a misdemeanor, and was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days in jail.
