Story Highlights

  • The family of Travis Pratt, who was mistakenly identified as a shooting suspect and later shot and killed by police during what they said was a mental health crisis, has filed a lawsuit against Kentucky law enforcement.
  • The lawsuit claims officers failed to follow de‑escalation and crisis intervention training, instead escalating the situation and using deadly force.
  • Pratt’s family alleges violations of constitutional rights, emotional distress, and wrongful death, seeking punitive damages from Kentucky State Police and the Knott County Sheriff’s Office.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The family of a Kentucky man who was mistakenly identified in an interstate shooting and later shot and killed by police is suing.

In their lawsuit against Kentucky State Police and the Knott County Sheriff's Office, the family of Travis Pratt said he was in the middle of a mental health crisis when he was shot by police.

Pratt was mistakenly identified as the suspect in a shooting on Interstate 75 near London, south of Lexington, on Sept. 7, 2024. Twelve vehicles were hit, and five drivers were injured by the gunfire. No one was killed, but the shooting prompted a manhunt for the suspect, 32-year-old Joseph Couch.

On Sept. 8, the day after the shooting, a man called 911 and reported Couch was on his porch in Littcarr, Kentucky, holding a knife.

"They guy they're looking for is here in Littcarr ... The one from London, the one from the shooting in London," the caller can be heard telling dispatchers. "It's the guy with a knife. I'll kill him if they don't get somebody here."

But that man wasn't Couch, it was Pratt and he was holding a stick, not a knife.

David Barber, the attorney representing Pratt's family, said the caller came outside with a gun.

"It was the neighbor who went out with a 357 magnum and chased Travis off of his porch, and then fired shots as Travis is trying to get away," Barber said. 

Pratt ran to a nearby house and went inside, trying to escape. KSP trooper Bruce Kelley and Knott County sheriff's deputy Wesley Bolen responded, and found Pratt shut in a bathroom. He tells the officers his name is Travis Pratt, not Joseph Couch.

When police say Pratt's name over the radio, another officer responds and says he knows Pratt, and requested to be patched through to try to talk him down. But the officers didn't take him up on that offer. 

"Travis is saying things like 'shoot me, I want to die,'" said Barber.

Barber said Pratt was in the middle of a mental health crisis. According to a news release from Thomas Law Offices, Pratt's mother called Kentucky State Police Sept. 8 reporting that her son was "acting erratically, and she was concerned for his mental wellbeing." 

Officers ask him if he has a gun. At first, Pratt said he didn't, but then he claimed he had a Glock. Investigators later determined Pratt was not armed. 

Officers then hear a noise and believe Pratt is trying to escape through a window, so they open the door.

"The deputies start yelling 'show us your hands, show us your hands,'" Barber said.

The attorney said still images from body camera footage shows Pratt's hands are visible. Officers deploy a taser to try subduing Pratt. As he's being tased, Pratt grabs part of a metal shower pipe from a broken shower head.

"The troopers are saying 'drop what's in your hand, drop what's in your hand,'" said Barber.

Pratt lifts the metal pipe, and police shoot him 13 times. 

"I don't think the deputy shot him thinking this was a piece of pipe, but I think this deadly threat was created by the officers," Barber said. "If they hadn't opened the door, if they followed their own procedures, then Travis Pratt is alive today."

Couch's body was found in the woods in Laurel County a little more than a week after the interstate shooting. His identity was positively confirmed days later.

Kelley and Bolen were placed on administrative leave after the shooting. After watching a presentation by Kentucky State Police, a grand jury declined to indict them. 

A 2021 investigation by The Marshall Project found KSP shot and killed 41 people between 2015 and 2020 — the highest number of any law enforcement agency in the state. About one-quarter of those people were unharmed. None of those shootings resulted in criminal charges against a trooper.

"Travis Pratt, he's not known, he's not protected, he's a nobody. The law is supposed to protect nobodies too," said Barber.

Pratt's family says they want the full story told and the case heard by a jury. Their lawsuit alleges there was "no indication Pratt was about to harm anyone at the time force was used, and that the confrontation could have been resolved through de-escalation rather than deadly force." 

It also claims the officers had received Crisis Intervention Training specifically designed to help police manage and de-escalate incidents with those in mental health crises "but failed to follow that training with Pratt."

The lawsuit alleges conscious pain and suffering, emotional distress, violations of Pratt's constitutional rights and his death. 

"This tragedy was completely preventable. Travis was in a contained mental health crisis, and the officers chose to turn it into a shooting," Barber said in a news release. "They knew his condition, had the training and time to de-escalate, and instead escalated the situation, creating the danger they later used to justify deadly force."

Pratt's estate is seeking punitive damages.

KSP and the Knott County Sheriff's Office have not yet responded to requests for comment on the lawsuit.

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