Kentucky man now charged with 3 murders, shooting at lawman

In this Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018 photo released by the Leslie County (Ky.) Detention Center, Paul Douglas Sizemore is seen in a booking photo. Sizemore, accused of shooting at a state police trooper rushing to the scene of a triple slaying has been charged in the murders of an eastern Kentucky couple and their adult son, police said Thursday. (Leslie County Detention Center via AP)

A man accused of shooting at a state police trooper rushing to the scene of a triple slaying has been charged in the murders of an eastern Kentucky couple and their adult son, police said Thursday.

Investigators connected the slayings and the attack on the trooper to Paul Douglas Sizemore, who was captured Wednesday.

Information gathered from the initial investigation led police to charge Sizemore with three murder counts, said Kentucky State Police Master Trooper Jody Sims. Sizemore was questioned by police after his capture while walking down the middle of a road.

State police didn't immediately offer a possible motive or say whether Sizemore knew the victims.

Sizemore, 52, also is charged with attempted murder of a police officer. He has a court appearance scheduled for Tuesday in Leslie County, court officials said. There was no paperwork indicating he has an attorney, officials said.

Sizemore fled on foot Monday evening after allegedly ramming his car into a police cruiser and shooting at the trooper, state police said. The trooper, Ethan Lewis, wasn't injured.

Deputies soon discovered the bodies, but Sizemore hid in the woods and wasn't found until two days later. He was unarmed and put up no resistance when officers found him walking on a road a few miles (kilometers) from where the slayings occurred. He complained of his feet hurting from exposure to cold weather. His capture ended a search on foot and by air in a heavily wooded, hilly area of eastern Kentucky.

"I'd say he was worn out," Sims said in a phone interview.

Shortly before his capture, Sizemore knocked on the door of a home, telling the person who answered that he needed to warm up and needed dry socks, Sims said. Sizemore wasn't allowed in and wandered off. The person contacted state police and Sizemore was soon found.

"They did speak with him for some time, so it appeared that he was, at least to some degree, being cooperative with questions that were being asked by detectives," Sims said.

Sizemore, now held in the Leslie County Detention Center, was charged in the slayings of 64-year-old Larry Bowling, his 61-year-old wife, Norma, and their 38-year-old son, Chad Bowling. The couple's bodies were found Monday evening in their home, and their son was found dead outside a neighboring home in the Appalachian community of Yeaddiss. All three had been shot, police said.

County Coroner Greg Walker told the Lexington Herald-Leader that Larry Bowling had worked as a coal-mine foreman, and that he and his wife were "just fine citizens."