LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A store surveillance video obtained by a Kentucky television station shows a man violently swinging a flagpole at a Louisville Metro Police officer before, police say, the officer fatally shot him.
Police said the officer responded to an assault call Saturday in Old Louisville, a neighborhood near downtown Louisville. The video WHAS-TV said it got from a nearby smoke shop shows the officer talking briefly with the man, who seems to become agitated and walks away from the officer.
The coroner’s office on Sunday identified the man as 35-year-old Deng Manyoun, according to the TV station.
The video, which was broken down into segments, shows the officer take a few steps forward, pull his gun and appear to call for backup before the man advances toward him swinging the flagpole. At one point the flag pole breaks.
The video shows the officer pointing his gun at the man, but doesn’t show him firing.
Police declined to identify the officer, who has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an inquiry by the Police Department’s Public Integrity Unit.
Police Chief Steve Conrad said the officer fired two shots in self-defense.
Manyoun was taken by ambulance to the University of Louisville Hospital, where he later died.
Kenneth Williams said on the WHAS report that he witnessed the shooting and believes the use of deadly force was unnecessary.
“He could have maced him,” Williams said in the video. “He could have used his stun gun.”
Witnesses said Manyoun seemed intoxicated. He appeared to stumble when the officer was talking to him in the video.
Manyoun’s arrest record shows a number of alcohol-related offenses dating back to 2008, WHAS reports. Before Saturday, Manyoun was arrested on June 2 for disorderly conduct, but released the following day.
The shooting has stirred emotions in the community, where neighbors said the man was known to residents. The Courier-Journal in Louisville reported that local activists planned a meeting Sunday to discuss the shooting.
Nick Holiday told The Associated Press on Saturday that he knew the man well and that he lived in an apartment building not far from the shooting site. Holiday, and others who had gathered at the intersection Saturday evening, questioned why the officer resorted to deadly force when faced with a flagpole, rather than use a Taser or other non-lethal means. They called for a quick and transparent investigation.
Contacted by the AP for further information Sunday, police did not immediately respond.
