LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A small-town Kentucky police department mourning the ambush slaying of one of its men has received threats that more officers will be targeted, prompting an investigation by the FBI and State Police, the police chief said Tuesday.
The department received a written threat last week that ‘‘there are more to come,’’ a reference to the nighttime ambush slaying of Bardstown Officer Jason Ellis, 33, last month while the K-9 officer was headed home from work, said Chief Rick McCubbin.
‘‘We don’t even know if any of the threats are credible, but obviously we’re going to treat them as if they are credible,’’ McCubbin said, adding that police would continue operating as usual, while taking extra precautions, in Bardstown, a town of 12,000 about 40 miles southeast of Louisville.
Officers are responding to calls in teams of at least two, he said, but their routines have not been changed in light of the slaying and the threats.
‘‘Our patrol officers are still out covering beats and making those runs,’’ he said. ‘‘We are not going to do our job in fear. We’re not going to retreat in any way.’’
Ellis was shot on May 25 after he got out of his cruiser to pick up tree limbs strewn on a highway exit ramp in Nelson County. Authorities said they think someone purposely placed the limbs on the ramp in order to get him to stop.
Ellis was described as one of Bardstown’s top officers when it came to arrests, with his bosses saying he had made a dent in the town’s drug problems during his seven years with the Police Department.
McCubbin has said that he thinks Ellis was targeted, but that the written threat did not single out anyone in particular. The note was turned over to Kentucky State Police and the FBI, the chief said. Mary Trotman, an FBI spokeswoman, confirmed the agency is investigating but would not comment on specifics.