Louisville mayor says police involved in shooting of restaurant owner hadn’t activated body cameras

Louisville, Ky., Mayor Greg Fischer (D) said police officers present at the shooting of a barbecue restaurant owner by officers and members of the National Guard did not have their body cameras activated at the time.

Fischer also said Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad, who previously announced his resignation in May, had been dismissed, according to the Courier Journal. A nightly curfew from 9 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. will be extended through June 8, he added.

Gov. Andy Beshear (D) has ordered the state police to investigate the fatal shooting of David McAtee in the early hours of Monday morning and the release of any applicable body camera and video footage “before nightfall.”

Police and National Guard have claimed they were shot at while breaking up a “large crowd” in the Dino’s Food Mart parking lot and that they killed McAtee when they returned fire, although it is unclear whether McAtee fired the shot.

Officials have not yet formally identified McAtee as the shooting victim, nor have they specified whether multiple officers or guardsmen shot McAtee. Local activists have questioned whether the gathering being broken up was a protest or simply a gathering of customers for McAtee’s barbecue, according to the newspaper.

A powerful moment happened on 26th and Broadway when family went to see the body of David McAtee.
The crowd was silent, except for one woman. pic.twitter.com/cUNyQuLTX5

— Dominique Yates (@RealDYates) June 1, 2020

A black man, David McAtee was murdered by LMPD & National Guard officers. He was shot and killed just after midnight. David owned a barbecue shop. He was known to feed police officers for FREE. HIS BODY IS STILL IN THE STREET!!! I am SO fucking outraged. RETWEET – know his name! pic.twitter.com/mzTTKFy2hw

— Kenidra4Humanity ~ BLACK LIVES MATTER ~ (@KenidraRWoods_) June 1, 2020

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

Louisville has been rocked by protests over the deaths of both George Floyd, a Minneapolis man who died when a police officer knelt on his neck even as Floyd said he could not breathe, and Breonna Taylor, a Louisville emergency medical technician killed in her home in March by police officers who broke down her door to execute a so-called no-knock warrant.