The vehicle that David Smith was pulled over in by a Barren County Sheriffs Officer on Monday, Sept. 8, 2014in Glasgow. (Austin Anthony/Daily News)

MERRY OAKS — Barren County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Kevin Wilson shot a Bowling Green man in the hip Monday morning after Wilson stopped the man following a stabbing call about 7 miles away.

Deputies were originally called to the 600 block of South Gassaway Road, after a report that one man was lying in a yard in front of a mobile home and another man was circling him with a knife in his hand, Barren County Sheriff Kent Keen said.

By the time deputies arrived, the man in the front yard was gone, as well as the man with the knife, Keen said.

A caller told dispatchers that the man with a knife drove off in a maroon Chevrolet Equinox, Keen said.

Wilson, an 18-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, encountered the Equinox about 7 miles away in the 10000 block of New Bowling Green Road. Wilson stopped the vehicle and David Smith, 22, got out with a pair of scissors in his hand and approached Wilson, Kentucky State Police Post 3 spokesman Trooper Jonathan Biven said.

“Deputy Wilson was able to deploy his Taser,” Biven said. “It was unsuccessful, and Mr. Smith continued at Deputy Wilson with the scissors. Deputy Wilson then discharged his firearm, striking Mr. Smith in the hip. Mr. Smith then fled on foot and was later stopped by other deputies with the Barren County Sheriff’s department here around the 10000 block of New Bowling Green Road. He was later subdued by another Taser deployment and was taken to the T.J. Samson Community Hospital for his other injuries.”

A witness who was driving on New Bowling Green Road at the time of the shooting was surprised to learn that the man she saw being taken into custody had been shot.

“They took him down at the telephone pole,” said the woman who declined to give her name. She didn’t see a deputy shoot Wilson. Another witness who officials identified only as a female relative of Smith’s was wearing a fresh, white bandage on her hand, and she declined to comment at the scene. After police released the scene, she drove away in the Equinox.

Tall grass was pushed down in front of a telephone pole about a quarter of a mile from where the Equinox was stopped, and police took measurements from that area to the road late Monday morning. The area is rural and sparsely populated. 

The sheriff’s office called KSP at 9:12 a.m. and asked the agency to investigate the shooting, Biven said. Wilson has been placed on routine, paid administrative leave pending the outcome of that investigation.

“This is a traumatic event,” Keen said after the shooting. “Even though law enforcement deals with a lot of dangerous things, so to speak, this is very critical to us and our deputy, I’m going to check on him now. I have somebody assigned to him already. But this is a serious event, and we’re worried about him also.”

Sheriff’s deputies are overseeing the investigation of the initial call from South Gassaway Road.

A neighbor on South Gassaway who said she witnessed the initial incident declined to speak. A man and a woman on the front porch of the mobile home where the first incident took place also declined to comment.

Another South Gassaway neighbor, Sherry Ballard, was not home Monday morning, but said the whole series of events has her rattled.

“It’s just shocking to live next door to that,” she said as her cat, Thomas, weaved figure eights around her legs. She said the residents at the home where the initial call took place have only lived there for a short period of time.

Smith was scheduled for surgery Monday evening for a Taser injury to his eye, Keen said.

The sheriff’s office has obtained an arrest warrant on Smith. When Smith is released from the hospital, he will be charged with first-degree assault on Wilson, Keen said. 

The South Gassaway Road incident remains under investigation.

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