LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- (WDRB) Authorities have released the identity of the man who was shot and killed by a Jefferson County Sheriff's deputy early this morning in a neighborhood near Churchill Downs.
Deputy Coroner Eddie Robinson says the suspect -- 20-year-old Glenn Michael Priddy -- died from a single gunshot to the head.
Police say Priddy had outstanding warrants for burglary and escape charges.
Lieutenant Colonel Carl Yates with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department tells WDRB Deputy Daniel Shipp had gone to a home on Powell Avenue in south Louisville to serve an Emergency Protective Order, but no one answered the door.
That's when deputies became suspicious of Priddy, who was walking nearby. After talking with Priddy, they asked him to get his identification from his car and ran a check of his license plate. When they discovered he was wanted on a felony warrant, deputies tried to arrest Priddy, but he put the car in gear and began driving away.
"He started the car and tried to leave," said Yates. "They began fighting over the steering wheel and the keys to the car. The deputy was kind of half in the car and half out of it, we understand, and dragged around the corner from Powell to the location."
Chuck Steele was home at 4 o'clock Wednesday morning watching a movie when he heard something that didn't come from his TV: "I heard, I guess, the screeching of the car carrying the deputy...I heard the deputy say, 'Stop the car or I'm going to shoot you.' I looked out the door and that's when I heard the crash and the shot."
"At some point in this struggle," Yates says, "we don't know exactly what happened -- the deputy fired one shot and the suspect was killed."
The car crashed into a pole on Glendale Avenue and the airbag deployed.
Steele says within minutes his entire neighborhood on Glendale Avenue was filled with police and sheriff deputies' vehicles, along with ambulances and fire trucks.
The deputy was burned by the airbag. It is unclear whether he was stabbed, as initially reported, but Yates said had "a gash on his arm and some other abrasions." Deputy Shipp was taken to University Hospital, but is expected to be okay.
Louisville Metro Police and the Public Integrity Unit are assisting with the investigation. It will take at least 4-6 weeks, or longer, for them to complete this investigation.
Yates says Priddy had escaped from the River City Correctional facility on east Chestnut a couple of weeks ago.
Priddy's family believes Priddy acted the way he did because he didn't want to go back to jail. They say he was trying to turn his life around. They now want answers as to what it was that caused the deputy to shoot him in the head.
Deputy Shipp has been with the department for four years, and is assigned to the warrant/EPO unit.
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Deputy Daniel Shipp
Glenn Michael Priddy
