Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Steve Conrad was fired Monday after two LMPD officers could not produce body camera footage of a shooting that killed David McAtee, a local businessman.
McAtee was the owner of YaYa’s BBQ, a popular barbecue restaurant on Louisville’s West End. WAVE 3 News reports that his niece was also shot but is expected to recover.
Mayor Greg Fischer (D) fired Conrad after learning that there was no footage of the shooting; both officers involved in the altercation had their body cameras turned off. “This type of institutional failure will not be tolerated,” Fischer said Monday afternoon while announcing the termination.
According to the Daily Mail, the two officers involved in the shooting are now on administrative leave.
Police said someone in a large crowd shot at officers in a parking lot near McAtee’s business early Monday morning, and then they returned fire.
The Courier Journal quoted Conrad saying, “Officers and soldiers began to clear the lot and at some point were shot at. Both LMPD and National Guard members returned fire.”
Gov. Andy Beshear (D) demanded corroboration for the police’s version of events while speaking to reporters Monday. “I’m not asking people to trust our account,” he said. “I want to see it myself.”
Police have not named any suspects regarding the alleged first shots.
McAtee’s mother, Odessa Riley, told reporters that her son had a reputation for being kind and hospitable to police. “He fed all the policemen,” she said. “Police would go in there and talk with him and be with him. He fed the police. He fed them free. All he did on the barbecue corner was trying to make a dollar for himself.”
McAtee told a local blog in February that he hoped to buy land and build a new building for his business in the next few years.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
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