Lexington police are investigating a shooting and another report of more than a dozen shots fired just minutes apart Thursday night on the city’s south side.

Officers were first called to a stretch of Appian Way around 9:30 pm by callers who reported hearing gunshots. They say a man showed up at a local hospital with a gunshot wound a short time later. He’s thought to have non-life-threatening injuries. So far there have been no details released on the victim or any possible shooters.

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While officers surveyed the scene on Appian Way, they were called to nearby Trent Boulevard for a report of more gunshots. They arrived to find shell casings indicating recent gunfire in the street near River Park Drive, but did not find evidence of property damage or injuries. It’s unclear if the two incidents are related at this time.

Police in Michigan are trying to track down two disabled siblings of a former Kentucky woman, accused of abusing and starving her handicapped sister.

In the meantime, investigators here in Kentucky are taking a closer look at the death of another sibling.

Candy Lawson is accused of locking her 42-year-old deaf, mute sister Diana in a closet at her Michigan home with little food and water and a bucket for a toilet. During the investigation into the disturbing allegations, the police chief in Corunna, Michigan says he started to uncover even more.

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The chief says Lawson’s mother had adopted eight disabled children over the years, and when she died in 2007, Candy Lawson took custody of two of her siblings, Diana and Christopher. She brought her siblings to live in Franklin County, Kentucky where she opened a tattoo shop.

In 2009, Lawson’s brother died. A death certificate for Christopher Churchill shows the 33-year-old died due to protein calorie malnutrition. Churchill was five-feet-two-inches tall and weighed just 60 pounds.

When Diana was rescued from her closet, she weighed only 74 pounds.

Authorities in Corunna, Michigan, charged 44-year-old Candy Lawson last week with unlawful imprisonment, vulnerable adult abuse and embezzlement from a vulnerable adult. She pleaded not guilty.

While Churchill’s manner of death was viewed as natural, some information received from Lawson’s family and friends in Michigan during the investigation into the abuse have led the Franklin County Coroner and Kentucky State Police to take another look at his death.

While that investigation is underway in Kentucky, back in Michigan, the Corunna police chief says two of Lawson’s disabled siblings are unaccounted for. His agency and some others are working to track them down, but they have not released any more details.

Thieves were creative when they broke into a Danville pharmacy Wednesday night. They did not use a door or a window, but broke in through the wall.

Bluegrass Drugs was open for business, but customers had to go through the drive thru window for service due to the mess caused by the thieves’ entry.

They broke in through the bathroom wall of the next door law office.

“Disarray, the bathroom wall was cut out, the office in disarray, the phone and computers unplugged,” paralegal Wanda Lyvers explained the condition of her office.

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Lyvers’ office space was rummaged through but nothing was taken. She said that the thieves even used her scissors and plunger to go through the drywall.

The pharmacy was robbed of medicine and money.

The surveillance system was dismantled and Lyvers believes that the suspects may have also broken in a few weeks ago.

“A couple months ago, I had the ceiling open to the attic thrown on the floor,” said Lyvers. “I think they were casing the place.”

Lyvers said she was glad that no one was there at the time of the break-in and that no one was hurt.

The Better Business Bureau in  Central & Eastern Kentucky is warning about a website for a company called “Commonwealth Bank” falsely using an address in Lawrenceburg, KY that matches the address for a branch of Frankfort-based Commonwealth Credit Union.

This website is NOT associated with Commonwealth Credit Union.

An Alabama resident called the BBB today asking about the website, saying she had searched online for a short-term cash loan and found the link www.comwealthbank.us.  She applied for a loan with information including her Social Security number, date of birth, and bank account information. The woman received a phone call from someone saying she was approved and that documents would be e-mailed to her.  She received a check for $499 from the “bank” to deposit in her own bank in order “to establish a relationship” with them.  They have since taken an additional $499 from her account, prompting her call to the BBB.

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She received the emailed documents, but when she tried to log back in to her account on the website, she was locked out.  She called the company and was told “they’d look into it. She’s now working with her own bank to keep them from taking any more.

Review of the website by BBB staff showed misspellings, incorrect grammar usage and non-functioning links, which are classic signs of a fraudulent website.

Commonwealth Credit Union officials in Frankfort, KY confirm for the BBB that the website is fraudulently using their 1015 Crossroads Drive, Lawrenceburg address, and that they are investigating.

BBB advises caution when searching online for a loan:

·       Always check out a lender with BBB at (859) 259-1008, 1-800-866-6668 or www.bbb.org/lexington  and with the Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions in Frankfort (1-800-223-2579). Online “payday loan” lenders are illegal in Kentucky.

·       Don’t be fooled – anyone can make a legitimate looking website. Watch for telltale “red flags” of a scam (misspellings, bad grammar, no encryption.)

·       Beware of promises of low interest rates or “guaranteed” approval despite bad credit.

Authorities have captured the inmate they say walked away from the Blackburn Correction Complex.

Officials say Richard Todd Shell, 42, walked away from the minimum security prison. He was confirmed missing around 8:45 a.m. Tuesday.

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Shell was serving a 16-year sentence for convictions out of Laurel County, including receiving stolen property. He would have been eligible for parole in March 2018.

Shell is now lodged in the Fayette County Detention Center.

The Franklin County Coroner is reopening the investigation into the 2009 death of a disabled man after police in Michigan say the man’s handicapped sister was found locked in a closet while in the care of their other sister.

The cause of death for Christopher Justin Churchill, 33, was listed as “protein calorie malnutrition”. The coroner told LEX 18 that at the time of Churchill’s death, he was 5’2″ and weighed only 60 pounds, but there was not substantial evidence that the man had been abused.

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Churchill’s sister, Candy Lawson was arrested last week, charged with vulnerable adult abuse, false imprisonment, and embezzlement. The chief of police in Corunna, Michigan said Lawson’s 42-year-old deaf, mute sister had been found locked in a closet in the suspect’s home. Investigators said the victim, who communicates only in writing, had been locked up for six or seven years with little food, water, or clothing and only a bucket for a bathroom. She weight just 74 pounds.

Lawson moved to Michigan about a year ago. Before that, she lived on Saint John’s Road in Franklin County and she owned Candy’s Body Art, a tattoo shop in Frankfort.

The charges accuse McAtee of using a woman’s personal identity information to open up and use credit cards in her name, then use those credit cards to make purchases totaling $3,196.

Court records detailing the incident have been sealed. However, Kearney Police Department incident reports indicate purchases were made in the alleged victim’s name for shoes, dog food and power tools.

McAtee posted 10 percent of a $30,000 bond, or $3,000, and is free. She is scheduled to appear in court in September.