Frightening update in hunt for US veteran gunman on the run in Kentucky after 'shooting five people'

An army vet remains on the run days after firing an AR-15 at a crowded highway in Kentucky - and authorities have now revealed how he purchased the firearm just hours before the shooting.

Joseph Couch, 32, has evaded capture since Saturday afternoon, and his gun was found in a woods along with ammo, his car, and what cops in Laurel County said could be his cell phone.

The find was the product of a dayslong search Saturday and Sunday, through the rugged, hilly and heavily wooded terrain near Exit 49 off I-75.

The evening before, Crouch fired the same weapon from a cliff ledge on the side of the interstate about nine miles north of London.

He struck 12 cars and five people, leaving them wounded. No one was killed, and the search for Couch continued early Monday morning.

'We have numerous individuals that are still searching in the wooded area up there,' Deputy Gilbert Acciardo said at the crime scene Sunday.

'The ATF, FBI and Marshal Service, their ERTS (Emergency Response Teams) are there to help us process what we've got so far,' he said.

'Last night, we recovered the suspect's vehicle in that area - that's why he is a person of interest. The vehicle came back registered to him.

'That recovery was made late last night and that's why we had the information that we had today,' he continued, before revealing what officials had just found seconds before.

just in the last few minutes. We located an AR-15,' he said.

'It's, gonna be processed, and it is in a wooded area next to the interstate.'

He added how the weapon was found 'in a location [where Couch] could have shot down upon the interstate,' before fielding a question about where cops had found the car the night before.

'It's on a forest service road at the top of the hill off of Exit 49, down another little trail off of that forest service road,' he said.

'Very near the interstate but not close enough that [Couch] could have fired from that location. 

'He had to walk on over toward the interstate, which is where we recovered the weapon at.'

Following the discovery, cops upgraded Couch from a person of interest to a suspect - a development that, when asked about, Laurel County sheriff John Root said also stemmed from 'some information' he could not share.

Root added how he and investigators believed Couch was still in the area, hiding out in woods State police Master Trooper Scottie Pennington said were like 'walking in a jungle,' with machetes needed to traverse thickets of woods.

Acciardo added that it appeared the attacker planned the shooting from that location specifically, due to how remote it is and the terrain is hilly

Also rocky and hard to navigate, the area was only found by Laurel County Sheriff's Captain Richard Dalrymple when he held onto a tree and looked down on the site - a ledge located about 30 feet down from a cliff overlooking Exit 49.

Dalrymple, during a briefing later that night, that Couch bought about a thousand rounds of ammunition and the weapon used in the incident, legally, on Saturday morning, just hours before the shooting.

Following that revelation, the massive, 150-man search for Couch was called off for the night. It had since commenced Monday, beginning at 8am.

Earlier Sunday, Acciardo described Couch's shooting as 'sniper-like', asserting that it was not the result of road rage and premeditated.

 He added that investigators did not believe at the time that the shooter - a confirmed Army vet who lived in Woodbine - knew any of the victims or had contact with them before letting off the barrage of bullets.

Despite finding the weapon he used in the incident, cops on Sunday said the suspect could still be armed and dangerous, with those who see him warned to not approach and instead contact authorities.

Investigators also aired the possibility that Couch could have committed suicide somewhere in the woods, though that remains to be seen.

Police said the victims he shot suffered injuries to the face, chest, and arms, but were all in stable condition at a hospital Sunday night. None were named.

A witness, however, spoke Sunday on ABC's Good Morning America, recalling how she driving with a friend southbound on I-75, heading to Tennessee, when the shooting erupted around 5:30pm Saturday.

'All of a sudden, we just heard this loud, deafening sound,' Christina Dinoto said. 'And my ear, my right ear, started ringing,' she continued.

'We didn't know what the sound was, but we both looked at each other and said, was that a gunshot?'

At that point, she said, she pulled off the interstate in Knoxville to discover what she believes was damage left behind a bullet fired by the suspect.

As a motive remains unknown, the now three-day search has left locals in the area on edge, with all public schools in Laurel County canceled on Monday.

Meanwhile, the search for Couch continues, with London Mayor Randall Weddle saying his office is 'monitoring the situation'.