At least one officer of the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) has reportedly been shot amid the protests following the criminal indictment of a police officer involved in the March 13 shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a Black 26-year-old medic in Louisville, Kentucky.
Fallon Glick of WDRB News reported in a tweet Wednesday evening that MetroSafe, the local emergency services hotline, confirmed that a police officer was shot at Brook and Broadway. The intersection is just a few blocks away from where protesters had gathered outside of the Louis D. Brandeis Hall of Justice, a court building.
WNCT 9 has also reported the shooting of another LMPD officer. Both officers were reportedly taken to the hospital though their conditions remain currently unknown.
Smaller instances of civil unrest have occurred throughout the evening as well.
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In the caption of a video posted to Twitter, Shelby Talcott, a reporter with The Daily Caller, alleged that protesters started a fire started at the Hall of Justice.
Talcott claimed that police eventually arrived to extinguish the flames, but retreated after one officer fell after being “hit with something.” A few smaller cardboard boxes filled with trash have also been set on fire near the building, she wrote.
The Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Phillip M. Bailey reported that hundreds of protesters gathered in Jefferson Square Park across the street from the Hall of Justice. There, Bailey encountered former Kentucky Senate candidate Charles Booker.
Hayes Gardner, a journalist covering the protests for the Courier-Journal, posted images and videos showing a large group police in riot gear facing off against protesters at Bardstown Road and Midland Avenue, roughly a mile away from the mayor’s home.
“Police have fired pepper balls. Protesters throwing bottles of water,” Gardner wrote. “Police announce this is unlawful assembly. Threats of chemical agents and arrests.”
Shay McAlister, a journalist with WHAS-TV, backed up Gardner’s assertions by posting similar observations and photos on her own Twitter feed. She added that police had formed a “secure perimeter” around the street and had loaded protester shields and plywood boards.
Jeff Young, a managing editor of the Ohio Valley ReSource journalism partnership, posted an image of police wielding batons and dressed in riot gear surrounding several alleged protesters seated on the ground with their wrists zip-tied behind their backs. Young said the police declared the protest an unlawful assembly.
While McAlister has since said that police are starting to move away from the Bardstown and Midland area, she also said she saw windows in two Bardstown road businesses shattered by a protester with a bat.
Police and city officials worried that unrest would break out in the city following the announcement of three Grand Jury indictments against former officer Brett Hankison for wanton endangerment in the first degree. He was the only of the three LMPD officers criminally implicated for their roles in Taylor’s death and also the only one fired.
The indictments against him didn’t pertain to Taylor’s death so much as his bullets that traveled through walls into nearby apartments during the raid which killed her. His bond was set at $15,000, which was posted soon afterward.
Anticipating the potential for civil unrest over the indictments, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and the LMPD both declared a state of emergency in the city. Police announced their intention to restrict car access to downtown and canceled officer vacations and requests for time off. Federal officials also closed a courthouse and other federal buildings for the week.
Sadiqa Reynolds, a downtown resident and CEO of the nonprofit Louisville Urban League, told The Associated Press the preparatory measures were “overkill.”
“This is certainly an over-response to the local protests that have been happening in our community,” she said. “This city keeps meeting the desire for justice with this preparation for war.”
This is a developing story and will be updated with more information.
