LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) — Neighbors and community leaders are calling for a "systemic overhaul" of Louisville's crisis response system after an LMPD officer shot and killed an unarmed man Saturday night.
LMPD Chief Paul Humphrey announced Tuesday that he intends to fire Officer Nathan Stotts for fatally shooting 27-year-old Martin Nitzken Jr. on Cromarty Way.
Police said officers responded to reports of multiple assaults Saturday night in the 3000 block of Cromarty Way before finding Nitzken naked in the street. Body camera footage shows Stotts repeatedly ordering Nitzken to stop before shooting him. Nitzken was unarmed.
After reviewing the video, 911 calls and dispatch records, Humphrey said Stotts' actions did not meet department standards. The footage shows there was over three minutes between Stotts shooting Nitzken and aid being rendered once backup officers arrived.
"This is not an acceptable performance for us," Humphrey said. "This does not meet our training, it is not what we teach and it does not meet our values."
The shooting renewed debate over how officers respond when behavioral health crises intersect with public safety concerns.
"The guy was having a mental crisis," said a retired nurse who lives nearby and asked not to be identified. "Why'd you shoot him? Why don't we have mental crisis personnel?"
In the initial 911 call released by LMPD, Nitzken's girlfriend described him as bipolar but with no history of aggression. On the call, she said he assaulted her and two friends while they were watching a basketball game.
Nitzken's girlfriend told dispatch she was punched in the face and that her friend had "chunks of her hair torn out." Nitzken also dislocated the shoulder of a neighbor who tried to confront him.
Louisville's Crisis Call Diversion Program was not involved in the incident because it was dispatched as an assault call, according to Humphrey. Under the current system, calls reporting a mental health crisis are transferred to a diversion team unless the person is believed to pose a danger to themselves or others, in which case police respond instead.
Following the March police shooting of 28-year-old Katelyn Hall, Mayor Craig Greenberg said the city began exploring whether a co-responder model with both an officer and a mental health professional could help in situations involving both public safety concerns and mental health crises.
Hall was fatally shot after police said she approached officers with a jagged piece of porcelain during a mental health emergency.
In a press conference Tuesday following the announcement to fire Stotts, Greenberg once again brought up the co-responder model, and said city officials have spoken with behavioral health experts as they work to finalize a plan.
"We are moving as rapidly as we can and my hope is to have a final plan in place that can be implemented as soon as possible," Greenberg said.
Many community leaders agree there needs to be an immediate resolution.
Louisville Urban League President Lyndon Pryor said in a letter with organization VOCAL Kentucky and the local branches of the NAACP and ACLU that there needs to be "an immediate shift to a human-first emergency response."
"You now have loved one family members, friends questioning, 'Who exactly should I call in these incidents?'" Pryor said. "...It's heartbreaking, and quite frankly, it's a cold-blooded killing."
The statement recommended several changes to Louisville's crisis response system, including automatically dispatching a non-LMPD mental health practitioner to behavioral health emergencies and placing clinicians in the lead role when responding alongside police.
Metro Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Shameka Parrish-Wright also issued a statement, calling the shooting "another painful reminder" the city still has work to do.
"There must be better, more tactical and more compassionate ways to respond to someone who is clearly experiencing a mental health episode and is not armed," Parrish-Wright said.
Greenberg said a criminal investigation into the shooting by Stotts is underway.
Copyright 2026 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
