Man Shot Dead By Louisville Police Amid Protests

Louisville Police shot a man dead on Sunday as hundreds of protesters decried police brutality of African-Americans in the U.S. The protest was just one of the many protests triggered by the death of George Floyd, the black American who died while under police custody on May 25.

According to Louisville Police Chief Steve Conrad, the shooting incident happened around midnight in the parking lot of Dino’s Food Mart at Broadway and 26^th Street. The police had to shoot back after someone open fired at them while they were breaking up a large crowd of protesters with the National Guard.

When the police returned fire, one man from the crowd was fatally shot. However, Conrad did not say if the man they shot dead was the same man who fired at them.

Conrad said an investigation of the incident was already ongoing as of early Monday. He also said the police was already interviewing some people of interest to shed light on the shooting. “It is very clear that many people do not trust the police,” he said. “That is an issue we’re going to work on and work through,” he added.

The violent protests on the night of May 29 caused Mayor Greg Fischer to impose a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew in Louisville. The Friday protests turned violent after the police fired at a local news reporter in Louisville while she was covering the street protests. The reporter, Kaitlin Rust, was live on the air when a disguised man who said “police” shot pepper balls at her and her team.

On Saturday, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear released a video message saying she had agreed to the deployment of 350 members of the National Guard to control the protesters in Louisville. However, the unrest continued through the weekend with the police deploying tear gas on the protesters.

Previously, hundreds of protesters also flooded the streets of Louisville following the death of black EMT Breonna Taylor. In March, Taylor was shot eight times inside her apartment after police officers served her a no-knock search warrant.