LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Louisville Metro Police officers shot and killed a woman Friday who allegedly charged at them with a “large, sharp object” at an apartment complex near Jeffersontown.
Deputy Chief Emily McKinley said patrol officers responded to the 9800 block of Vieux Carre Drive at 7:45 p.m. on a report of a person “experiencing a mental health or behavioral health crisis.” That’s off Shelbyville Road and South Hurstbourne Parkway.
Once on scene, officers learned there was 28-year-old woman with self-inflicted lacerations who was armed with a piece of glass or edged weapon and locked in a bathroom, McKinley said.
The woman was “highly agitated, incoherent and making suicidal statements.” Police on scene “attempted to deescalate through verbal communication” and asked other responding officers to bring “less lethal tools.”
McKinley said because there was a weapon and other people present, the situation “did not meet the criteria for deflection or a mobile crisis response.”
As she continued making “agitated, suicidal statements” from the bathroom, crews with the Anchorage-Middletown Fire Department responded and forced entry into the bathroom.
When the door was opened, McKinley said the woman exited and “charged at officers with a large, sharp object.” Two officers fired their weapons, hitting the woman. She was taken to University of Louisville Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
LMPD’s Public Integrity unit is investigating the shooting, and the officers who fired their weapons will be placed on administrative leave. Per department policy, additional information and body camera footage from the shooting will be made public within 10 business days.
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