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Small-Town Kentucky Mayor Shot Dead

The mayor of a small western Kentucky town has been shot and killed in his home, and a suspect turned himself in shortly afterward.

The mayor of a small western Kentucky town has been shot and killed in his home, and a suspect turned himself in shortly afterward.

Hickman Police Chief Tony Grogan says Mayor Charles Murphy was slain early Monday morning in the town of about 2,500 people. Grogan says 30-year-old Thomas Joseph Lattus walked into the police department around 1 a.m. and admitted to the shooting, and he was charged with murder.

An officer then went to the home of the second-term mayor and found his body in the bedroom.

Lattus was being held at the Fulton County Detention Facility, where records do not indicate whether he has an attorney. A home phone number for Lattus could not immediately be found Monday morning.

Grogan did not say anything about a motive.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.
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