Kentucky police officer shot during robbery investigation dies

By Steve Bittenbender

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Reuters) - A central Kentucky police officer who was shot while investigating an armed robbery has died from his injuries, the Kentucky State Police said on Friday.

Richmond Police Officer Daniel Ellis, 33, was shot Wednesday morning by a man while he and another officer were searching an apartment in a town about 25 miles (40 km) south of Lexington.

The other officer returned fire and wounded the suspect, identified as Raleigh Sizemore. Sizemore was treated for his injuries and arrested, police said.

Sizemore, 34, has been charged with murder of a police officer, two counts of attempted murder of a police officer, unlawful imprisonment and illegal handgun possession, state police officials said.

He was being held at the Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange, Kentucky corrections spokesman Mike Caudill said.

Ellis died early Friday at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, where he had been taken after the shooting, police said. He had been with the department seven years.

Ellis was shot in the apartment of Gregory Ratliff, 25, who was charged with complicity to commit murder of a police officer, authorities said. Ratliff was being held in the Madison County jail.

(Reporting by Steve Bittenbender; Editing by Lisa Lambert and Lisa Shumaker)