A Louisville domestic violence call that began late Thursday night on Parthenia Avenue ended roughly an hour later with a man dead inside a motel room near the Kentucky Exposition Center, after police said he exchanged gunfire with officers who had tracked him there. No one was hurt at the original scene, but the standoff that followed drew three officers, a SWAT team and a drone before it was over.
Police responded around 10:50 p.m. to a report of shots fired at a home on Parthenia Avenue, according to wdrbwave.com, which reported that officers determined no one was injured there. Investigators then tracked the man, described only as a white man in his 30s, to a motel room in the 500 block of Phillips Lane, the outlet reported.
Standoff Ends With Drone Finding Man Dead
The man was inside the room with a woman when officers arrived, the station's report notes. Officers tried calling him out of the room, and the woman eventually emerged on her own. According to the same account, the man then fired at officers outside, and three officers returned fire.
After an hour-long standoff, SWAT deployed a drone that flew into the room and found the man dead, the outlet reported. Accounts of his injuries differ: WHAS11 reported that the man was shot once by officers, while wdrbwave.com reported that he was shot at least once by officers and also had a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Officers Placed on Leave, Body Camera Video Expected
The officers involved were placed on administrative leave per department policy, WHAS11 reported. LMPD said body camera video of the incident will be released by October 30, per the same wdrbwave.com report.
The shooting adds to a string of officer-involved incidents LMPD has faced this year. Earlier this month, police shot a 15-year-old boy during a domestic violence response in Okolona, an incident LPM described as the sixth LMPD shooting of the year, with the officer involved placed on leave while the department's Public Integrity Unit investigated. In that same report, LPM noted that LMPD officers shot nine people the previous year.
Other recent cases have drawn scrutiny over how such shootings are resolved. In March, officers Robert Baker and Robert Gabbard shot and killed 28-year-old Katelyn Hall after she charged at them while holding a sharp object, according to Spectrum News 1, which also reported that a Jefferson County grand jury indicted former officer Nathan Scotts on manslaughter and reckless homicide charges after he shot and killed a naked, unarmed man. Louisville's Office of Inspector General says it conducts independent reviews of officer-involved shootings, examining investigative processes and policy compliance, though the agency has not commented on this case.
