LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Thursday Louisville Metro Police are expected to release body camera footage from a traffic stop in the city's Chickasaw neighborhood in which an officer was shot and critically wounded.
One mother hopes it also provides some insight on why officers ordered her family out of their home and placed her 15-year old son in handcuffs for a short time -- when they had nothing to do with the crime.
"It could have went so bad from the time they walked out this door," Pamela Mitchell said in an interview with WDRB. "If you're saying (it's for safety) they were safe inside this house."
LMPD Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said the incident started when Officer Brandon Haley was conducting a traffic stop around 2:30 a.m. While conducting the stop people inside the vehicle got out and ran and, "shots were fired from a nearby home." After the shooting, police were involved in a standoff at the house that continued for several hours. That home was directly across the street from where the Mitchell's live.
"Police started rushing in on both sides," 15-year old Dayrrel Mitchell said. "They get out the car, start running toward the alley way...and down the middle of the street."
After waking to those gunshots Dayrrel ran to his big brother, 18-year-old Darryl Mitchell's room, as the windows faced the scene at 40th and Kentucky streets. The brothers said they saw a flood of red and blue lights filling the streets but one light shined back at them as they looked outside.
"(Police) had the flashlights on the guns, you could see them point up at the window," Darryl Mitchell said. "They said 'come outside, come outside' and my dad, he stopped us. He said 'don't go outside, we didn't do anything wrong, so don't go out there.' But we were already halfway out so we didn't want to walk back and make them think we were doing something. So we just kept walking out here and that's when they put him in handcuffs."
Home security footage captured the moment the two brothers, their father and their nine- and six-year-old sisters walked out the front door with their hands in the air.
Home security footage shows the Mitchell's being forced outside by Louisville Metro Police.
"Keep coming to me, keep coming to me, come on, come on," police officers are heard saying to the family in the video as they walk down the street. "We have another one at the door on the right."
Dayrrel responds to police saying "Yeah, it's my dad, my sister and my brother, it's my dad, my sister and my brother."
Darryl rolled on his cell phone as they walked from the home.
"I was just scared," he said. "They had big guns."
The video also captured officers placing handcuffs on Dayrrel and an officer placing all five family members in the street behind a police car.
"I don't want y'all getting hit, you stay right here," an officer says in the video. "Sit down on your butts."
The family answers officers questions stating they knew nothing about the house in question.
Dayrrel, still handcuffed told the officer he was scared.
"I was handcuffed right in the middle of the street," he said.
Dayrrel said the officer took off the cuffs within three minutes and removed the family from behind the car within 15 minutes.
Pamela Mitchell listened over the phone from work as her family was detained. She said she has understanding and compassion for the officer who was injured, however she wants to know why her family was "put in harms way" as the standoff ensued.
The Mitchells say officers did approach another neighbors home, but because they were moved further away from the scene, they do not know if that person was removed.
Dayrrel anad Darryl Mitchell speak to WDRB News.
"Why was my son handcuffed and why was my family pulled out," Pamela Mitchell questioned. "I just want to know why."
WDRB requested an interview with LMPD Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel, but the request was denied because of the pending investigation. LMPD instead released a statement saying, "During the course of this investigation, all officers involved will explain their actions early that morning through a meticulous, methodical process and LMPD is committed to maintaining transparency throughout its entirety."
LMPD arrested four people during the standoff Dominique Thompson, 27, Jemond Groves, 21, Quantez Porter, 28, and Jacquan Ransom, 28. Court records say Thompson was found under a vehicle behind the home where the shots were fired at the officer.
None of them were charged for shooting the officer.
Attorney David Beyer is a former FBI agent, now a law enforcement advisor. He teaches best practices to police command staff through UofL's Southern Police Institute.
"When you get a call like that things can be very chaotic and it can be compounded 100 fold by having an officer critically wounded in the street," Beyer said.
Beyer said in this situation, it is likely legal to clear residents from their home even without a warrant due to exigent or immediate circumstances like a potential danger to the officers on scene or the people who live there.
"I would strongly recommend that police agencies facing a situation like this sit down with the family and say here's why we were here and explain legitimate lawful reasons for what was done," Beyer said.
After the Mitchell's spoke with WDRB News, an LMPD officer left a note at the family's home. The two sides have not met yet.
"Why was my son handcuffed and why was my family pulled out. I just want to know why," Pamela Mitchell said. "It really hurt my feelings. Nothing like this ever happened to me before."
Related Stories:
- LMPD officer in critical condition after he was shot in Chickasaw neighborhood early Thursday
- LMPD chief says 'many' officers cited in DOJ probe were previously disciplined, but no further investigations
- LMPD Chief gives update after officer was shot in the Chickasaw neighborhood
- Louisville police officer shot during traffic stop still in critical condition
- Department of Justice issues scathing report into Louisville police practices
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