Louisville police and soldiers return fire, killing man

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky's governor on Monday called for the release of police video from a deadly shooting in Louisville that took place while police officers and National Guard soldiers were enforcing a curfew amid waves of protests over a previous police shooting.

Killed in the gunfire was barbecue operator David McAtee, whose business is next to the parking lot where the shooting occurred early Monday. He was mourned by hundreds of people who returned to the site hours afterward.

Christopher 2X, an anti-violence activist and executive director of the group Game Changers, said McAtee was well liked, adding: “I’ve never known him to be aggressive in any kind of way.” McAtee was known to give free meals to police officers, his family told the Courier Journal.

The city's police chief said McAtee was killed early Monday while police officers and National Guard soldiers returned fire after someone in a large group fired at them first.

A witness said the group had nothing to do with the protests, and was shocked to see soldiers disrupt their gathering. "Never thought I would experience that here in America,” Kris Smith said.

Gov. Andy Beshear said there's “significant camera footage, body camera and otherwise” from the shooting and pressed Louisville police to release the video.

“I believe that the people of Kentucky deserve to see it for themselves, and I believe in seeing it can decide whether this was justified or whether it is cause for more concern,” the Democratic governor said.

Mayor Greg Fischer, who spoke with McAtee's mother, said he's committed to “getting all the answers out as quickly as possible" about the shooting.

Beshear authorized state police to independently investigate or oversee the probe into the shooting,

“It’s really important for the truth to get out there," he said. “But I think it’s also really important in ensuring that we don’t have violence, if people can see it and know that -- good, bad or ugly -- we’re being absolutely transparent about it.”

Police Chief Steve Conrad confirmed the shooting happened around 12:15 a.m. Monday outside a food market on West Broadway, where police and the National Guard had been called to break up a group of people gathering in defiance of the city's curfew.

Someone fired a shot at them and both soldiers and officers returned fire, the chief said. Several “persons of interest” were being interviewed, he said.

Beshear said “every account" he saw showed police and guardsmen were fired on first.

News outlets showed video taken by someone in a car parked at a gas station. It recorded the sound of bullets being fired as groups of police and national guard soldiers crouched behind cars.

Smith said he was at a restaurant — “just outside having a good time, having drinks, eating barbecue” — when the soldiers arrived.

“As soon as I walk to my car they jump out with the sticks, the police jump out with their sticks and their shields and stuff on," Smith said. “It looked like something out of a movie. It looked like a freaking war zone. ... I knew there was going to be some trouble.”

He heard a loud noise, and a few minutes later gunfire erupted, he said.

“It was like a delayed reaction, like they were looking to try and see where it was coming from, if it was a gunshot, if it was a firework, or whatever," Smith said. “Then all of a sudden they just started shooting.”

Smith, who is black, said the group had nothing to do with the protests.

“Never thought I would experience that here in America,” he said.

Last week, before the Kentucky National Guard was mobilized, seven people were wounded when gunshots erupted during a protest in downtown Louisville. Police said none of the seven, who are recovering, were shot by police. They have not announced any arrests.

Protesters have been demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, a black woman killed in her home in Louisville in March. The 26-year-old EMT was shot eight times by narcotics detectives who knocked down her front door as they attempted to enforce a search warrant. No drugs were found in the home.

Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, pleaded for peace while demanding justice for her daughter.

“We can’t get justice with violence," she said. “It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t help. It doesn’t help her. It doesn’t help us. It doesn’t help the world we live in. We can’t fight violence with violence.”

Fischer announced last week that police are suspending the use of no-knock search warrants.

___

Associated Press contributors include Rebecca Reynolds Yonker in Louisville. Tulp reported from Atlanta.