LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The family of a man shot and killed by an LMPD SWAT officer last summer questions the story of the officer in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.
Raad Fakhri Salman, 62, was shot by Sgt. Brandon Hogan in Salman’s Colonial Oaks apartment off Southside Drive on July 5, 2018.
According to the lawsuit, Salman was a mentally ill refugee suffering for “unspecified psychosis” and had not been taking his medication in the days before the incident occurred.
Police say that Salman was holding his wife at knife-point when Hogan shot and killed him. A 911 dispatcher report also says Salman was inside and “threatening to kill wife and torture her.”
Several 911 calls were made by Salman and others. In one, a man who is believed to be Salman can be heard saying “come help.” A woman can be heard screaming in the background.
“I have a man holding a woman at knife-point, and he’s threatening to kill her,” a second caller told dispatchers. “He’s like got it to her neck right now.”
According to LMPD, Hogan was conducting training at a location a half-mile away from the incident, so he responded.
Police say Hogan arrived at the scene and found Salman was holding his wife at knife-point. According to LMPD Chief Steve Conrad, Salman refused demands to drop the knife, and Hogan shot Salman with his AR-15 rifle. Salman was later taken to the hospital and pronounced dead.
At the time, LMPD said Salman was making cutting or jabbing gestures with the knife toward his wife, who was on the ground when Hogan arrived. In the lawsuit, Salman’s wife denies this claim.
Attorneys for Salman’s family say that no demands by Hogan to drop the knife can be heard in spite of Salman holding the phone in his hand.
The lawsuit also questions the timing of Hogan’s response. According to the suit, Hogan responded, confronted and shot Salman all within two minutes and thirty-two seconds.
Lawsuits represent only on side of an argument in a case. LMPD does not comment on pending litigation.
The suit alleges that Hogan used excessive force when he shot Salman and that Salman “posed no reasonable threat of serious physical harm or death” to his wife or Hogan.
No video exists of the incident, because SWAT officers are not equipped with body cameras.
Hogan was cleared of wrongdoing by LMPD's Public Integrity Unit and placed back on active duty on Nov. 19th.
Related Stories:
Copyright 2019 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
