LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The city office created to monitor Louisville Metro Police found an officer violated policy in the 2023 shooting death of a suspect.
But LMPD disagrees, and said the officer did exactly what he should’ve. Mayor Craig Greenberg now has some questions he wants answered.
On Aug. 3, 2023, LMPD said 47-year-old James Monti was lying in an alley off Frankfort Avenue when he pointed a gun at Officer Roberto Cedeno.
Cedeno fired his gun, and Monti later died at UofL Hospital.
“In this particular case, you have an individual that has already fired at officers, who was lying in a prone position, lying in wait to target officers,” Greenberg said.
In a report, Louisville’s Inspector General Ed Harness concluded Cedeno “did not comply with LMPD policies on use of force and de-escalation.”
In 2023, Roberto Cedeno was responding to reports of a shooting on New Main Street and found a man lying in an alley, pointing a gun at Cedeno.
But LMPD exonerated Cedeno and disagrees with the report.
This week, LMPD Chief Paul Humphrey said, “Cedeno performed exactly as we expect any officer to perform in that situation.”
“In February of this year, there was a draft report that agreed with LMPD’s investigation into this officer-involved shooting, so what changed over the past couple of months to make the final report so different?” Greenberg said.
Harness is out of town but told WDRB the February report was “posted in error” and was not a completed document. He added, “When we saw it, we immediately pulled it.”
As for Humphrey’s reaction to the findings, Harness said, “I completely stand by what we detail in our report.”
The Inspector General’s report also noted Cedeno is a veteran and expressed concern about the challenges veterans face transitioning from military to civilian policing roles.
That caught the attention of Louisville’s police union, which issued a statement that said, in part:
“This OIG has lost all credibility and needs to find a new job. Insisting LMPD should train our former and current armed forces veterans any different than we do other officers is ludicrous.”
Greenberg said he hopes to have his questions answered in the coming days, as his police department and the office created to monitor it are once again at odds.
“Of course, there might be some tension from time to time, and that is natural,” Greenberg said.
Cedeno resigned from LMPD in April amid a department investigation. He was then indicted on nine charges, including stalking, tampering with public records, and violating an interpersonal protective order.
“But both LMPD and the Office of the Inspector General need to be institutions and organizations that the community trusts,” Greenberg said.
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