Louisville police involved in two shootings in nine-hour span
/In a nine-hour span, police fatally shot a man armed with a knife and
critically wounded an ax-wielding teenager, drawing fresh complaints
from civil rights activists in a city reeling from a rash of such
shootings. Police said the two men shot Wednesday night and early
Thursday were drawing close to officers and ignored commands to drop
their weapons. A police spokesman said the officers appeared to follow
proper procedure, though internal investigations continued. Activists,
however, were angered by the shootings and said the Louisville Metro
Police Department should stop waging "target practice." Thirteen people
have been shot dead by Louisville police since 1998. Although the two
suspects shot in the latest incidents were white, seven of the dead
were black. "Something is terribly wrong with the psyche and the
mentality of this police department," said the Rev. Louis Coleman, head
of the Justice Resource Center. "This is not a black issue - this is a
human issue," added the Rev. James Tennyson, another activist with the
same group. Donald Neifert, 40, was fatally shot Wednesday night as
officers sought him on a warrant for a charge of intimidating a
witness. A few hours later, 19-year-old Brayden Cole Adrio was shot in
the chest before dawn Thursday after his mother called officers to say
the ax-wielding teen was out of control. Adrio was hospitalilzed in
critical condition. Both officers involved were white. The shootings
nearly coincided with the one-year anniversary of the fatal shooting of
a black teenage drug suspect by a white Louisville police officer that
incited protests. [more]
