HARDIN COUNTY, Ky. – A heated argument between an active duty military service couple turned into gunfire and a woman celebrating her birthday Monday evening is dead, according to reports.
Partygoers grabbed the couple’s children during the outbreak of domestic violence and left the gathering on Sierra Drive in the LaVista Estates of Rineyville, Kentucky. The celebratory event Monday evening was a birthday party for Ashley (last name was not provided), 32, but she wound up dead. Her husband, Jordan Mykol Henning, 33, is accused of fatally shooting her, Lt. Col. David Lee of the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office said. Although drinking was involved, the sheriff didn’t go into details about what sparked the deadly dispute.
According to Fort Knox Public Affairs, Jordan and Ashley are active duty military members. Jordan is a staff sergeant attached to First Army Division East, reported The News-Enterprise. The sheriff’s office is joining forces with the commonwealth attorney’s office and the Criminal Investigation Division at Fort Knox to investigate the homicide, Lee said.
Neighbors in the Rineyville community reportedly tried to calm the pair when things got heated. Friends were in the process of leaving with the couple’s children when they heard a first and second volley of gunshots from the home, according to The News-Enterprise.
Jordan left the crime scene in a “hurried manner” and drove away as his wife bled from “multiple gunshot wounds” to the torso, the sheriff said. Ashley was rushed to the hospital, but she did not survive.
Responding deputies found Jordan about a mile from his house. He was making “numerous utterances apologizing for hurting his wife,” The News-Enterprise reported, citing the arrest report.
Jordan was taken into custody and subsequently charged with murder related to domestic violence, which is punishable by 20 to 50 years or life in prison. He was arraigned in Hardin District Court on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty. His bond was set at $1 million, Fox News reported.
“You feel for the kids and her, because it’s supposed to be a celebration of her life, her birthday, and she loses her life on her birthday, and the kids are without their mother,” Lee told WLKY.
While military officials were unable to release or confirm the name of the victim, they did say she was a soldier with U.S. Army Human Resources Command and was also stationed at Fort Knox.
