LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called on Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and the city’s police department to quickly make public videos showing the overnight killing of a western Louisville business owner by police and the National Guard.
Family members identified the man as David McAtee.
Louisville Police Chief Steve Conrad said police and the National Guard arrived at Dino's Food Mart at 26th Street and Broadway around midnight to help disperse a large crowd in the parking lot. According to Conrad, officers were shot at, then police and the National Guard returned fire, killing McAtee.
Beshear said Monday that “my understanding is that there is significant camera footage,” including from officer-worn body cameras.
“I believe that the people of Kentucky deserve to see it for themselves and I believe in seeing it can decide whether this was justified or whether it is cause for more concern,” he said.
Beshear said Kentuckians should “not have to rely on anybody else, especially at this time and with the feelings that I know are out there.”
“Let’s put it out. Let’s let people see it,” the governor said. “Because I believe that if the truth shows that if there was an act of aggression, of firing upon LMPD and the National Guard and shows the response – if folks believe that that’s justified, that they will be able to accept the truth. But they’ve got to be able to see the truth. That’s the very least that people deserve.”
Beshear has asked a Kentucky State Police investigative unit to review the shooting.
The shooting came amid the fourth day of protests over the police killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician and former EMT. She died in an undercover narcotics raid on her apartment March 13 in which police used a "no-knock" warrant.
She was not the main target of the raid. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired at officers, believing they were intruders, he has said.
Nothing illegal was found in her home. The man police were looking for had already been arrested miles away when the raid on Taylor's apartment, attorneys say.
Speaking in Frankfort Monday with Beshear, Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, called for protesters to refrain from violence.
This story will be updated.
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