Another Black man, David Mcatee, was killed by the Lousville Police
Another unarmed black man, David Mcatee, was killed on Monday, 1st June, by the LMPD and the National Guard just after midnight local time at Louisville – many have assumed.
David McAtee, who owned YaYa’s BBQ, was allegedly shot and killed by the LMPD and the National Guard at his BBQ stand on the corner of 26th & Broadway in Louisville, Kentucky. He was unarmed when he was shot and his body was left in the street ( the parking lot of Dino’s Food Mart on 26th and Broadway, where he normally set up his stand) for more than 12 hours after the incident occurred.
Those who knew McAtee attested that he was an amazing man and volunteered his time giving meals to his community.
The LMPD Police Chief, Steve Conrad has thus, been released from his duties after they found that body cameras were off, unfortunely that means there’s no footage of McAtee’s murder.
Acting Chief Robert Schroeder, at the press conference, seemed to walk back Beshear’s statement pending investigation.
“We do not know who shot him,” he said, “we do not know if it was related to a separate incident, if it was due to the shots fired by our officers and the National Guardsmen soldiers who accompanied them.”
The press conference did not address why McAtee’s body was left outside, and Louisville police did not respond to a request for comment.
Robert LeVertis Bell, a community activist who’s running for the Louisville Metro Council in the 4th District, was among the hundreds of protesters who had gathered at the scene early Monday afternoon. He said the crowd was made up mostly of members of the community, not experienced activists, who were angry and hurt. “We were already dealing with the death of Breonna Taylor,” he said, referring to the police shooting of a young black woman two months ago.
“Even if they had some sort of legitimate, procedural reason for [keeping the body at the scene] you’d think they would have in mind the trauma that they’re inflicting when they do that, especially having experienced that with the Mike Brown case in Ferguson,” Bell said. “That’s the first thing I thought, that this was terrorism… because it’s terrorizing, even if they don’t intentionally try to do it.”
