FLOYD COUNTY — Criminal charges have been filed against a man who police now say killed his own wife and another person in a gas station parking lot, fled officers, then took a hostage at gunpoint and tried to hit officers with a car.
Cherok A. Douglass, 37, of New Albany, Ind., is currently being held at Floyd County Jail on two counts of murder and one count each of attempted murder, kidnapping while hijacking a vehicle and robbery resulting in serious bodily injuries. All charges are felonies.
Cherok Douglass was shot by responding officers with the New Albany Police Department and Floyd County Sheriff's Department when he tried to run officers over with an SUV he had forced a woman hostage into, according to Indiana State Police. ISP investigated the shooting.
Police first responded at about 10 a.m. Monday for a double-homicide at a Circle K gas station at Beechwood and Grant Line roads. There, they found two victims, later identified as Cherok Douglass' wife, Brandee Kay Douglass, 38, and Lorin M. Yelle, 48, of Louisville, Ky.
RELATED | New Albany double homicide suspect, victims named
ISP said Yelle had no connection to either Brandee or Cherok Douglass and was a customer at the gas station. She was shot as she was exiting the store.
Officers then saw a suspect, later identified as Cherok Douglass, fleeing in an SUV. They chased the suspect onto Charlestown Road, north of Interstate 265, where Douglass stopped at
a local restaurant and at gunpoint took a woman as a hostage.
He then forced the woman into the SUV. At one point, the woman fell from the vehicle, at which point he tried to run over officers. It was then officers opened fire, wounding him. He was transported with non-life-threatening injuries to a university hospital in Louisville.
Cherok Douglass was extradited from Kentucky on Wednesday, ISP said. An initial court appearance has not yet been scheduled on his behalf.
Autopsies for the victims are scheduled for next Monday.
-
Haughville residents express what they hope to see changed
As IMPD and local pastors look to make connections with neighbors, WRTV listened to what Haughville residents want to see changed in their neighborhood and how they think it can happen.Garth Brooks responds to rape allegations from hair-and-makeup artist
A woman who says she worked as a hair-and-makeup stylist for Garth Brooks alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday that he raped her in a Los Angeles hotel in 2019.Dockworkers' union to suspend strike until Jan. 15
The union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend their strike until Jan. 15, a source familiar told the Associated Press.IMPD issues reminders on the dangers of speeding
Speed can kill is the message IMPD officers are working to share after an officer clocked a driver going 78 in a 35-mile-per-hour zone in a residential neighborhood.