Feb. 28, 2023 Lance Storz was charged with ambushing police and fatally shooting two Prestonsburg police officers and a Floyd County sheriff’s deputy when they tried to serve a domestic violence order last June.
By Bill Estep Source Lexington Herald-Leader Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A man charged with murdering three police officers in Eastern Kentucky last June hanged himself in jail and died, according to the prosecutor on the case.
Lance Storz, 50, of Floyd County, was being held in the Pike County Detention Center while awaiting trial, according to Brent Turner, commonwealth’s attorney for Floyd County.
Turner said police confirmed to him Storz killed himself in the jail.
Storz was charged with ambushing police when they went to his house in Allen June 30 to serve a domestic violence order his wife, Christina, had obtained.
She alleged in the complaint that she had told Storz she was going to leave him.
Storz became irate and said he wouldn’t let her leave him, she said.
She said Storz trapped her in a bedroom, threw her around the room and slapped her, and sexually assaulted her.
He allegedly brandished a pistol and demanded that she beg for her life and their daughter’s life, according to the complaint.
”Lance said he has nothing to lose and is ‘all in,’“ his wife said in the complaint. She also said he told her “I would never leave him outside of a body bag” and that he would kill their daughter as well.
Storz opened fire on police without warning, killing three officers, as well as a police dog, and wounding several more officers and officials who responded.
Those killed were sheriff’s deputy William Petry and Ralph Frasure and Jacob Chaffins, who were with the Prestonsburg Police Department.
Storz ultimately surrendered.
He could have faced the death penalty in the case.
Turner said he had not filed a formal notice that he would seek the death penalty if Storz was convicted, but said it was likely he would have.
The national suicide prevention hotline has recently been changed to a three-digit suicide and crisis hotline. It is available 24/7 and can be reached by dialing 988. More information can be found at 988lifeline.org.