Louisville police arrest masked man with gun near Dixie Highway after tip from resident

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville man armed with a gun was arrested near a discount store Wednesday after he was stopped by police for allegedly violating the city's ordinance prohibiting people from wearing masks in public.

Frank Childress, 24, was arrested Wednesday afternoon after someone saw him wearing a "black full face mask" with a black shirt and "a large gun on the right side of his body under his shirt" and called 911.

A Louisville Metro Police officer who responded to the call found a man — identified as Childress — matching that description at the corner of Dixie Highway and Oak Street "loitering on the side of the Dollar General building at 1201 Dixie Highway." The officer noticed a bulge on the front right side of Childress' waistband and approached the man, who began walking eastbound on Oak Street.

That's when the officer made a "reasonable suspicion stop," and Childress told the officer he didn't have any weapons on him when asked. He agreed to a pat-down search, but pulled away and began running on 17th Street. That's where the officer grabbed his shirt and they both fell to the ground.

After more LMPD officers arrived at the scene, the man was brought under control and handcuffed. Childress continued resisting when being placed in the patrol car, damaging the rear passenger door with his elbow. He then lunged at one of the officers "in an attempt to injure him." He also spit at one of the officers, but missed, and broke the officer's sunglasses and Apple watch.

Childress, a convicted felon prohibited from carrying a gun, was in possession of a 9mm Beretta with one bullet in the chamber and another in the magazine. He as arrested at the scene and booked into Metro Corrections. As he was being booked, police found "two marijuana blunts" in a bag of personal property LMPD seized during the arrest.

He was charged with violating the ordinance against wearing face masks in public, menacing, violating the mask band, three counts of criminal mischief, possession of marijuana, promoting contraband, and resisting arrest.

Childress is scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 4.

The arrest happened days after Louisville officials announced the city will begin enforcing the ordinance that has been on the books since the 1980s.

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