On Thanksgiving Day afternoon, November 26, 2020, in McKee, Kentucky, 21-year-old Justin Burkhart was shot and killed during a dispute outside a residence on US Highway 421. Troopers and detectives with the Kentucky State Police found Burkhart deceased from an apparent gunshot wound; the Jackson County Coroner pronounced him dead at the scene and his body was sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Louisville for autopsy.

Burkhart, born March 16, 1999, in Clay County, was a father to a daughter and had a son on the way. The initial investigation indicated an altercation between Burkhart and 45-year-old McKee resident Clint Cox, who reportedly retrieved a firearm and shot Burkhart. Cox was arrested by the Kentucky State Police and lodged in the Jackson County Detention Center on a formal murder charge.

Anyone who was in McKee that Thanksgiving afternoon or who knew Justin or the people involved is asked to share information that could help clarify what happened.