A national ballistics network was used to connect a suspect who fled to Ohio and then New York after allegedly shooting and killing a 31-year-old Lexington man in February.
During a preliminary hearing Tuesday, Lexington Police Department detective Jeremy Adkins testified against 28-year-old Kyshawn Owens, who is accused with the murder of Chadwick Boone.
Owens faces additional charges of tampering with evidence and convicted felon in possession of a firearm, according to court documents.
Adkins testified during the hearing that officers were called to a restaurant and bar on Feb. 3, where they found Boone with multiple gunshot wounds. Boone later died at the University of Kentucky Hospital.
Surveillance cameras from the bar and several other businesses show Owens and Boone in the establishment before they began arguing verbally and then psychically, Adkins testified.
Owens allegedly brandished a gun and shot Boone before he fled the scene and was rescued by a ride-sharing service.
Owens traveled to Reading, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, where he was seen on surveillance footage disassembling a gun before throwing it into a creek, according to Adkins. Local police found the gun and tracked the ballistics through the National Integrated Ballistic Network Twork which is designed to take evidence of firearms in different scenesanalyze specific bullet points and draw links together.
Police were able to connect the firearm to Owens and Lexington police were notified. From there, evidence showed that Owens purchased a Greyhound bus ticket that took him to Yonkers, New York, according to Adkins.
Owens was arrested in New York on June 7 and was being held in the Westchester County Jail, police said.
Fayette District Judge Lindsay Hughes Thurston found probable cause against Owens and sent his case to a grand jury. Her bond remains at $760,000.
