Shepherdsville police officer resigns after being arrested for leaving scene of DUI crash

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- An officer with the Shepherdsville Police Department resigned Monday, days after he was arrested for driving drunk and leaving the scene of a crash.

According to a statement by Shepherdsville Police Chief Rick McCubbin, 40-year-old Christopher Cowan made the decision Monday morning.

"I met with Sgt. Chris Cowan this morning regarding the incident over the weekend in Corbin, Ky," McCubbin said in a statement. "Sgt. Cowan resigned effective immediately. His candor was professional and he chose to make the ethical, conscionable and correct decision ... I appreciate his years of service and wish him all the best."

According to court documents, the incident took place just before 11 p.m. Saturday not far from the Corbin Arena, near the interchange between Interstate 75 and State Road 25W.

Officers with the Corbin Fire Department were at the Corbin Speedway when they say they saw a black truck run a red light near the intersection of Arena Drive and Cumberland Falls Highway. According to court documents, the truck was traveling at a "high rate of speed."

A short time later, a firefighter saw the same truck back into a parked vehicle in the arena parking lot and leave the scene, according to the arrest report. The firefighter was able to get a description of the truck: a black Ram 1500 with a black-and-red Louisville registration plate.

An officer with the Corbin Police Department found the truck in a nearby parking lot. According to to court documents, the driver was 40-year-old Christopher Cowan. When the Corbin officer arrived on the scene, he allegedly found Cowan outside the truck, yelling and kicking it. Police say Cowan was having trouble standing up, smelled of alcohol and had slurred speech, and bloodshot, glassy eyes. When asked, he allegedly confessed to being the driver.

While he was talking with police, Cowan allegedly started walking to his truck and said "he was going to get his gun."

Cowan was arrested and charged with second-degree Disorderly Conduct, first-degree Operating a Motor Vehicle While Under the Influence of Alcohol and Leaving the Scene of an Accident.

McCubbin said he was disheartened when he heard the news.

"I thought for sure you'd make better decisions than that since that's what we do on this side," he said. "We police our own. We don't sweep stuff under the rug, and he's gone. And he was arrested by another police agency ... So we police our own. We are the law, but we're not above the law. We make mistakes, and we have to fix it."

This isn't the first time he's been on the other side of the bars.

In 2014, he was charged with domestic violence after he was accused of hitting his girlfriend with his car. He worked for LMPD then.

That department said he didn't resign from there until 2017. McCubbin said he was in good standing at that time.

"We have to have that letter of good standing, any law enforcement in Kentucky, and there was none there, nothing there," he said. "So you try to give somebody another chance. Sometimes, you strike out."