Florida man accused of murdering hotel employee in Kentucky after couple declined to give him lighter

A Florida man was arrested for murder on Saturday after allegedly assaulting a couple in the parking lot of a Kentucky hotel then shooting and killing an employee, according to the McCracken County Sheriff’s Office. 

In addition to first-degree murder, 55-year-old Robert Pannell was also charged with assault, wanton endangerment, disorderly conduct, menacing, and resisting arrest. 

Law enforcement officers were called to a Best Western hotel in southwestern Kentucky about an active shooter around 9:48 a.m. on Saturday morning. 

A Paducah police officer located Pannell in the parking lot and detained him, while a sheriff’s deputy began searching the hotel and located the employee on the first floor with multiple gunshot wounds to the head and body. 

Detectives learned during the investigation that Pannell allegedly assaulted a couple in the parking lot after they couldn’t give him a cigarette lighter. 

He then entered the hotel with a handgun and opened fire indiscriminately, according to the sheriff, leaving the employee dead. No one else was struck by gunfire. 

Pannell is from Palm Coast, Florida, and was staying at the hotel at the time of the shooting. 

He is being held at the McCracken County Jail on a combined bond of $2.5 million, according to jail records.