What we know about the Kentucky police officer gunned down by a suspected cop impersonator
Slain officer Phillip Meacham was a married father of two.
An off-duty police officer in a close-knit Kentucky community was gunned down on March 29 by a man who allegedly was pretending to be a cop.
Here is what we know about the shooting, the manhunt and the slain officer.
A deadly shooting
At about 5:10 p.m. Thursday, Hopkinsville police officer Phillip Meacham was off-duty and in his personal car but responding to a "potential criminal situation" when he was pulled over by a man pretending to be a police officer, according to police and the mayor of Hopkinsville.
"Shortly after that" Meacham was shot, the Hopkinsville police said.
The suspected gunman, 34-year-old James DeCoursey of Hopkinsville, fled on foot and stole a pickup truck, the Kentucky State Police said.
Meacham, a married father of two, died at a hospital, authorities said.
An intense manhunt
In the middle of the night, authorities zeroed in on the stolen truck in a restaurant parking lot in Clarksville, Tennessee, a city just across the border from Kentucky that's about 30 miles south of Hopkinsville.
At about the same time, a call came in to police from a hotel across the street, reporting that a man who looked like the suspect was there asking for a cigarette, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.
Authorities were headed toward the hotel when two Montgomery County Sheriff's deputies and a U.S. Marshal came across DeCoursey walking across the street back toward the restaurant, the TBI said.
It appeared DeCoursey "ignored repeated commands and the situation escalated," resulting in the officers firing at DeCoursey and killing him, the TBI said.
No law enforcement officers were injured in that shooting, the TBI said.
A community left grieving
Meacham, 38, leaves behind a wife and two children, state police said.
He had been with the Hopkinsville Police Department since May 2017. Before that he had spent nearly 12 years working at the Christian County Sheriff's Department, state police said.
"We’ll get through this," Hopkinsville police chief Clayton Sumner said Thursday night. "It’s what we do."
"It’s all a family. We know everybody," Sumner added. "It’s not like big cities where you may not know who you work with."
Meacham was a lifelong Christian County resident, said Hopkinsville mayor Carter Hendricks.
"Words feel insufficient in times like these," Hendricks said in a statement. "But our presence and our prayers do matter. I encourage each of you to do your part to bring comfort to the family and all affected by this tragedy."
City of Hopkinsville flags will be flown at half-staff, Hendricks said.
ABC News' Will Gretsky, Ben Stein, Brendan Rand and Louise Simpson contributed to this report.