After assaulting a couple in the parking lot of a Paducah hotel, a man entered the hotel and fatally shot an employee.
The McCracken County Sheriff’s Office arrested 55-year-old Robert I. Pannell, of Palm Coast, Florida, and charged him with murder, first-degree assault, third-degree assault of a police officer, fourth-degree assault, first-degree wanton endangerment, menacing, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct.
Saturday morning at approximately 9:50, deputies and the Paducah Police Department responded to the report of an active shooter at a Best Western on John Puryear Drive, near I-24.
Upon police arriving, officers discovered a female shooting victim on the first floor. The victim, a hotel employee, was suffering from “multiple gunshot wounds to her head and body,” police said.
A Paducah officer soon arrived on scene and located Pannell “outside the hotel and detained him.”
The investigation showed that Pannell assaulted a male and female in the parking lot of the hotel after they “could not give Pannell a cigarette lighter,” according to the sheriff’s office. Pannell then entered the hotel with a handgun and walked down a hallway where he shot the female victim multiple times.
Pannell, who was staying at the Best Western, then dropped the gun and walked out of the hotel.
The female shooting victim died Saturday afternoon.
Pannell is being held in the McCracken County Detention Center.
The investigation is ongoing.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
