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Not a good time for LPD.
(LOUISVILLE, December 6th, 2002, 5 p.m.) -- After responding to a cry for help, police say a detective fatally shot a handcuffed man 12 times because he wouldn't drop his weapon.
James Taylor, 50, was shot multiple times at 6:02 p.m. Thursday in his one-room apartment in downtown Louisville. Taylor, a convicted felon, was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m. by Jefferson County deputy coroner Rick Siclari.
Louisville Police detective Michael O'Neil was placed on routine administrative leave pending an investigation, Police Chief Greg Smith said.
Detective Brian Luckett was also placed on administrative leave. He was with O'Neil when they responded to the disturbance at Taylor's apartment. Luckett did not fire a weapon, Smith said at a news conference Friday morning.
O'Neil and Luckett, dressed in plain clothes, were searching for a witness in an unrelated case at a residence next door to Taylor's apartment. After hearing a commotion, the officers walked into the apartment complex, heard a woman cry for help and saw Taylor's door ajar, Smith said.
Two women and two men, along with Taylor, were in the apartment.
"He (Taylor) was in a very agitated, very aggressive state. He was ready to fight," Smith said, adding that O'Neil and Luckett saw crack pipes in the room upon their entry.
The officers then handcuffed Taylor and set him in a chair to calm him down. One of the women then told the officers that Taylor had a knife.
O'Neil and Luckett then told Taylor to stand up. After resisting, O'Neil pulled him up by his arm. That's when it's believed that Taylor pulled a knife with a 3-inch blade from his pocket, Smith said.
"He then began slashing from his hip," Smith said.
O'Neil ordered Taylor to drop the knife, but instead the victim lunged at O'Neil. O'Neil fired his gun one time, Smith said.
The bullet did not stop the victim. He continued pursuing O'Neil, backing him into a corner of the room, Smith said. O'Neil responded by shooting his gun 11 more times -- the gun held 16 bullets.
Smith said as Taylor lunged at O'Neil, Luckett tried to take him down by kicking him.
Taylor, who served 10 years in prison after being convicted of manslaughter in 1984 in Louisville, was believed to have been under the influence of alcohol and drugs at the time of the shooting, according to witness statements.
"Witnesses said Taylor had been drinking vodka and smoking crack all day," Smith said. "Put both of those together and you have a very dangerous situation."
The statements of all four witnesses were consistent with the detectives stories, Smith said.
Along with the manslaughter conviction, Taylor had been charged with alcohol intoxication, probation violations and drug offenses. Taylor was released from a second prison term in June 2001 after being convicted of cocaine possession, according to Debbie Linnig Michals, spokeswoman for Jefferson County Circuit Court.
Both O'Neil, 27, and Luckett, 25, joined LPD in 1999. This is the first time that either officer has been put on administrative leave for shooting incidents, Smith said.
Neighbors say there were always a lot of people coming and going in the apartment. One neighbor says she's "been getting nervous because there are so many different people that I've been seeing in and out and stuff, so that's been making me nervous, even without the shooting."
The shooting is under investigation.
Thursday night's shooting was the fourth police shooting in our area this year. In April, a man was shot after a standoff with police. After police tried to serve a warrant on Terry Hines at his apartment on Nob Hill Lane, Hines refused to be arrested and threatened them.
A SWAT team sent in a canine unit and Hines stabbed the dog with a butcher knife. That's when an officer shot him.
This is getting really ugly folks, there have been protests outside of LPD headquarters asking for Chief Smith to resign. Here is an update:
(LOUISVILLE, December 13th, 2002, 4 p.m.) -- Jefferson County's coroner and prosecutor are expressing concern over the fatal shooting by Louisville police of a handcuffed man, and questioning whether it was necessary.
Jefferson County's coroner says an autopsy report shows the handcuffed man who was killed by a Louisville police detective was hit by eleven bullets and not seven as previously reported.
Taylor, 50, died within a minute of being shot, said Dr. Richard Greathouse, the Jefferson County coroner.
Greathouse said it was the first time he can recall since being elected 29 years ago that police had "riddled with bullets" a suspect who was already handcuffed. "The circumstances are very troubling, to say the least," Greathouse said. "It is a really great cause for concern why this was necessary."
Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Stengel also said he was "devastated" by the shooting, which he expects will be presented to a grand jury after police investigations are concluded.
"I haven't seen (all) the facts yet, but on its face, it looks so horrible," said Stengel, whose office decides if such cases are presented to the grand jury.
"This looks like one that will go," he said.
Police Chief Greg Smith has said that Detective Mike O'Neil fired 12 shots at the handcuffed Taylor after he threatened O'Neil and Detective Brian Luckett with a box-cutter knife. Smith said the detectives were unable to disarm or subdue Taylor, who had backed O'Neil into the corner of Taylor's one-room apartment near downtown.
Offering the first public defense of O'Neil, his lawyer, Steve Schroering, said, "Detective O'Neil was clearly in fear of his life at the time he fired and police are trained to fire until the threat is stopped."
Luckett's lawyer, Scott C. Cox, declined to comment.
Greathouse said seven bullets and two bullet fragments were recovered from Taylor; all hit the front of his body. The preliminary autopsy report doesn't say how far away O'Neil was from Taylor when he fired.
Greathouse says the autopsy and toxicology showed Taylor was under the influence of alcohol and cocaine.
The bullets lacerated Taylor's heart, lungs, spleen, diaphragm and liver, and fractured a rib and Taylor's left shoulder, Greathouse said. Taylor was so severely injured that he would have died even if there had been an operating room next door, the coroner said.
He said he gave a copy of the preliminary autopsy report and a coroner's report to the FBI, which also is investigating Taylor's death.
The Rev. Louis Coleman, executive director of the Justice Resource Center, said the preliminary results show the shooting was "an execution of an individual with his hands behind his back. This was horrific."
Aubrey Williams, who is co-counsel for Taylor's estate, said Taylor couldn't have charged the officers with the knife unless he came at them sideways. And if he was doing that, Williams said, the bullets should have entered Taylor's side, rather than the front of his body.
[ 12-16-2002, 12:40 AM: Message edited by: Piper ]
James Taylor, 50, was shot multiple times at 6:02 p.m. Thursday in his one-room apartment in downtown Louisville. Taylor, a convicted felon, was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m. by Jefferson County deputy coroner Rick Siclari.
Louisville Police detective Michael O'Neil was placed on routine administrative leave pending an investigation, Police Chief Greg Smith said.
Detective Brian Luckett was also placed on administrative leave. He was with O'Neil when they responded to the disturbance at Taylor's apartment. Luckett did not fire a weapon, Smith said at a news conference Friday morning.
O'Neil and Luckett, dressed in plain clothes, were searching for a witness in an unrelated case at a residence next door to Taylor's apartment. After hearing a commotion, the officers walked into the apartment complex, heard a woman cry for help and saw Taylor's door ajar, Smith said.
Two women and two men, along with Taylor, were in the apartment.
"He (Taylor) was in a very agitated, very aggressive state. He was ready to fight," Smith said, adding that O'Neil and Luckett saw crack pipes in the room upon their entry.
The officers then handcuffed Taylor and set him in a chair to calm him down. One of the women then told the officers that Taylor had a knife.
O'Neil and Luckett then told Taylor to stand up. After resisting, O'Neil pulled him up by his arm. That's when it's believed that Taylor pulled a knife with a 3-inch blade from his pocket, Smith said.
"He then began slashing from his hip," Smith said.
O'Neil ordered Taylor to drop the knife, but instead the victim lunged at O'Neil. O'Neil fired his gun one time, Smith said.
The bullet did not stop the victim. He continued pursuing O'Neil, backing him into a corner of the room, Smith said. O'Neil responded by shooting his gun 11 more times -- the gun held 16 bullets.
Smith said as Taylor lunged at O'Neil, Luckett tried to take him down by kicking him.
Taylor, who served 10 years in prison after being convicted of manslaughter in 1984 in Louisville, was believed to have been under the influence of alcohol and drugs at the time of the shooting, according to witness statements.
"Witnesses said Taylor had been drinking vodka and smoking crack all day," Smith said. "Put both of those together and you have a very dangerous situation."
The statements of all four witnesses were consistent with the detectives stories, Smith said.
Along with the manslaughter conviction, Taylor had been charged with alcohol intoxication, probation violations and drug offenses. Taylor was released from a second prison term in June 2001 after being convicted of cocaine possession, according to Debbie Linnig Michals, spokeswoman for Jefferson County Circuit Court.
Both O'Neil, 27, and Luckett, 25, joined LPD in 1999. This is the first time that either officer has been put on administrative leave for shooting incidents, Smith said.
Neighbors say there were always a lot of people coming and going in the apartment. One neighbor says she's "been getting nervous because there are so many different people that I've been seeing in and out and stuff, so that's been making me nervous, even without the shooting."
The shooting is under investigation.
Thursday night's shooting was the fourth police shooting in our area this year. In April, a man was shot after a standoff with police. After police tried to serve a warrant on Terry Hines at his apartment on Nob Hill Lane, Hines refused to be arrested and threatened them.
A SWAT team sent in a canine unit and Hines stabbed the dog with a butcher knife. That's when an officer shot him.
This is getting really ugly folks, there have been protests outside of LPD headquarters asking for Chief Smith to resign. Here is an update:
(LOUISVILLE, December 13th, 2002, 4 p.m.) -- Jefferson County's coroner and prosecutor are expressing concern over the fatal shooting by Louisville police of a handcuffed man, and questioning whether it was necessary.
Jefferson County's coroner says an autopsy report shows the handcuffed man who was killed by a Louisville police detective was hit by eleven bullets and not seven as previously reported.
Taylor, 50, died within a minute of being shot, said Dr. Richard Greathouse, the Jefferson County coroner.
Greathouse said it was the first time he can recall since being elected 29 years ago that police had "riddled with bullets" a suspect who was already handcuffed. "The circumstances are very troubling, to say the least," Greathouse said. "It is a really great cause for concern why this was necessary."
Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Stengel also said he was "devastated" by the shooting, which he expects will be presented to a grand jury after police investigations are concluded.
"I haven't seen (all) the facts yet, but on its face, it looks so horrible," said Stengel, whose office decides if such cases are presented to the grand jury.
"This looks like one that will go," he said.
Police Chief Greg Smith has said that Detective Mike O'Neil fired 12 shots at the handcuffed Taylor after he threatened O'Neil and Detective Brian Luckett with a box-cutter knife. Smith said the detectives were unable to disarm or subdue Taylor, who had backed O'Neil into the corner of Taylor's one-room apartment near downtown.
Offering the first public defense of O'Neil, his lawyer, Steve Schroering, said, "Detective O'Neil was clearly in fear of his life at the time he fired and police are trained to fire until the threat is stopped."
Luckett's lawyer, Scott C. Cox, declined to comment.
Greathouse said seven bullets and two bullet fragments were recovered from Taylor; all hit the front of his body. The preliminary autopsy report doesn't say how far away O'Neil was from Taylor when he fired.
Greathouse says the autopsy and toxicology showed Taylor was under the influence of alcohol and cocaine.
The bullets lacerated Taylor's heart, lungs, spleen, diaphragm and liver, and fractured a rib and Taylor's left shoulder, Greathouse said. Taylor was so severely injured that he would have died even if there had been an operating room next door, the coroner said.
He said he gave a copy of the preliminary autopsy report and a coroner's report to the FBI, which also is investigating Taylor's death.
The Rev. Louis Coleman, executive director of the Justice Resource Center, said the preliminary results show the shooting was "an execution of an individual with his hands behind his back. This was horrific."
Aubrey Williams, who is co-counsel for Taylor's estate, said Taylor couldn't have charged the officers with the knife unless he came at them sideways. And if he was doing that, Williams said, the bullets should have entered Taylor's side, rather than the front of his body.
[ 12-16-2002, 12:40 AM: Message edited by: Piper ]
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