‘He was a community pillar’ – Black business owner shot and killed by Louisville police

Federal and local investigations have been launched into the death of a black business owner, David McAtee, who was shot and killed. The owner of YaYa’s BBQ in western Louisville lost his life Monday as Louisville police and National Guard officers disperse a “large crowd” in the parking lot of the Dino’s Food Mart, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.

McAtee was a “community pillar”, the newspaper quoted his mother Odessa Riley as saying. She was among the hundreds who had thronged the parking lot outside Dino’s Food Mart, where Louisville police and National Guard personnel were breaking up the crowd.

“He left a great legend behind. He was a good person. Everybody around him would say that,” Riley said of her deceased 53-year-old son. “My son didn’t hurt nobody. He didn’t do nothing to nobody,” the hurting mother added.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear ordered swift investigations into McAtee’s murder, which will be jointly carried out by the FBI Louisville Field Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District.

In a statement, Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad observed that someone from the crowd shot at the police and personnel of the National Guard leading to a “returned fire,” killing McAtee in the process. 

Conrad was fired by Mayor Greg Fischer Monday afternoon. He was already on his way out following the Metro Police’s lackluster response to the shooting of Breonna Taylor.

According to Attorney for Taylor’s family, Rob Eggert, police burst into Taylor’s home without announcing their presence and fired at least 22 times, with bullets going into neighboring apartments.

“This type of institutional failure will not be tolerated,” Fischer said of McAtee’s shooting. 

Two LMPD officers Katie Crews and Allen Austin were named as culprits in the shooting, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. And neither has any disciplinary records. However, the names of the National Guard troops had not been made public.

“That is completely unacceptable,” acting LMPD Chief Rob Schroeder said. “And there is no excuse for their clear failure to (follow) our policy.”