[Police Violence & Murder\David McAtee]
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer: “We lost a wonderful citizen named David McAtee. David was a friend to many, a well-known Barbecue man.”
Photo: YouTube
Black businessman, David McAtee, was shot dead Monday probably by two police officers who deactivated their body-cams in Louisville, Kentucky.
The police chief of Louisville, Kentucky, has been fired after officials discovered two police officers involved in fatal shooting of a man during a protest over George Floyd’s death had not activated their body cameras.
“This type of institutional failure will not be tolerated,” Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said on Monday. “Accordingly, I have relieved Steve Conrad of his duties as chief of Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD).”
Fischer identified the victim as David McAtee, a local business owner.
Protests, sometimes violent, have erupted across the nation after Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died while being arrested in Minneapolis last week.
In Louisville, the protests have centered on the death of Breonna Taylor, an emergency medical technician who was shot multiple times when three LMPD officers entered her apartment by force to serve a search warrant in a narcotics investigation.
McAtee was shot as police and the National Guard were trying to disperse the protesters, police said Monday. The officials returned fire after they were shot at.
“We lost a wonderful citizen named David McAtee,” Fischer said. “David was a friend to many, a well-known Barbecue man.”
“They’ve nurtured so many people in their bellies and in their hearts before, and for him to be caught up in this, not to be with us today is a tragedy.”
The Louisville Metro Police Department and National Guard units were sent to clear a large crowd in a parking lot around 12:15 a.m., the police chief said early Monday.
“Officers and soldiers begin to clear the lot and at some point were shot at,” Conrad said at a press conference. “Both LMPD and National Guard members returned fire, we have one man dead at the scene.”
The Louisville shooting happened in the far western part of the city, where protests hadn’t taken place in previous nights.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said state police will also investigate McAtee’s death.
“Given the seriousness of the situation, I have authorized the Kentucky State Police to independently investigate the event,” Beshear said in a statement.
Russell Coleman, US Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, also said on Twitter his office has started an investigation, which will be carried out alongside the FBI Louisville office and state police.
Odessa Riley, a woman who was at the scene Monday, told CNN the shooting victim was her 53-year-old son.
“They killed him for no reason,” Riley said through tears.
For the rest of this CNN story log on to https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/us/louisville-protests-man-shot-dead/index.html
