Wanted Barbourville man accused of trying to run officers over before high-speed chase

BARBOURVILLE, Ky. (FOX 56) — A man with an arrest warrant in Barbourville allegedly fought multiple police officers after running out of a car at the end of a high-speed chase down Moore Creek Road.

Court documents show that on Aug. 12, officers with the Barbourville Police Department (BPD) tried to carry out an approved safety checkpoint with vehicle lights and two spotlights on the road. That’s when a silver Mitsubishi Lancer slowed down before allegedly speeding back up in “an apparent attempt to run them over,” forcing officers to “jump out of the way of the vehicle or be struck by it.”

An arrest report shows that officers found the car driven by Kenny Ray Frye, 43, of Barbourville, near a church on Henson Hollow and followed him toward Parkway Plaza.

During the chase, officers reportedly drove at speeds up to 112 miles per hour to keep following Frye. When they tried to box Frye in, he allegedly left the road on the shoulder, “cutting back into the front officer’s vehicle with his driver’s side door,” which hit an officer’s vehicle.

Officers wrote that Frye left the car on Moores Creek Road, running over an embankment and falling into a creek. When they tried to arrest him, he allegedly hit an officer in the face.

After being warned, court documents show Frye was reportedly tased by officers for allegedly resisting arrest. After he got medical treatment following the fall and fight, he was lodged in the Knox County Detention Center on a $75,000 bond. Frye was also reportedly wanted on a warrant for possession of a handgun by a convicted felon.

He was charged with:

• Speeding 26 miles per hour or more over the limit
• Attempted murder of a first responder
• Reckless driving
• First-degree fleeing or evading police in a motor vehicle
• First-degree wanton endangerment
• Resisting arrest
• Third-degree assault of a police officer or probation officer
• Second-degree fleeing or evading police on foot

An investigation into the high-speed chase remains ongoing.