Accused of shooting man in head Tuesday morning

SOUTH POINT — A man was arrested in Lawrence County Tuesday afternoon on an attempted murder charge out of Ashland, Kentucky.

Ashland Police Major Bill Hensley said the situation started around 5 a.m. Tuesday morning at the Winchester Inn Motel at 2280 Winchester Ave. in Ashland, Kentucky.

“Mark Hopkins, 40, who was a resident of the Winchester, was shot in the head,” Hensley said. “He got lucky, it kind of skimmed his skull. The bullet went in and came back out.”

He said they were able to track down the suspect, Michael Kelley, 35, who has no permanent address, to the Country Hearth Inn in South Point around 1 a.m.

“We contacted the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office. They brought the SWAT team and we were able to locate him,” Hensley said.

Kelley was taken to the hospital for a possible overdose after he was arrested.

“We believe that prior to being arrested, he swallowed an illegal substance,” Hensley said. “He swallowed something that made him lose consciousness, so he was taken to King’s Daughters Medical Center. It wasn’t life threatening, they just had to get it out of his system.

Hensley said Kelley has been treated and as soon as he is released, he will be lodged in the Boyd County Jail on the charge of attempted murder. He added they are still investigating if the two men were fighting and what lead to the shooting.

“They are not strangers to each other, they are acquaintances,” Hensley said.