Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Paul Humphrey is moving to fire the officer who fatally shot 27-year-old Martin Nitzken, Jr. Saturday. Body camera footage released Tuesday shows Nitzken was unarmed, naked and stumbling toward the officer who shot him.
Mayor Craig Greenberg praised Humphrey for "acting swiftly and decisively" in a press conference hours after the police chief announced his plan to fire Officer Nathan Stotts.
"We have high standards for those who take an oath to serve our community, and we must take action when those standards are not met," Greenberg said.
Greenberg said the commonwealth's attorney, who prosecutes felonies and other major crimes, is also "involved in this matter." Humphrey said that LMPD is conducting a criminal investigation, as is policy when an officer shoots a member of the public.
Nitzken's girlfriend told a 911 dispatcher Saturday night that he was bipolar and had previously not shown any signs of violence, according to audio played at a press conference Tuesday. She told the dispatcher they had been watching a basketball game with friends before he "lost his mind and started attacking me." A neighbor told the dispatcher that Nitzken was "definitely having a mental break."
The footage shows that when Stotts arrived at the scene, Nitzken was lying naked in the street. A neighbor who had been trying to calm Nitzken down was standing at the end of a nearby driveway.
Stotts told Nitzken to put his hands behind his back, and then to show his hands. Nitzken started stumbling towards Stotts, who told him to stop. When he didn't, Stotts shot him in the neck. Stotts did not attempt to use less lethal methods before shooting, which Humphrey said is why he is firing the officer.
The footage also shows that Stotts kept his gun aimed at Nitzken after shooting him. He did not immediately render aid to Nitzken, who was bleeding and motionless on the ground.
"This is not an acceptable performance for us. This does not meet our training, it is not what we teach and it does not meet our values," Humphrey said at a press conference Tuesday.
Metro Council Member Josie Raymond, who represents the area around Buechel and Klondike where Stotts killed Nitzken, called the shooting a "tragedy" in a press release Tuesday.
"When residents call 911, they expect officers to respond with professionalism, sound judgement, and a commitment to protecting life. Based on the facts released by the department, those expectations were not met in this case," Raymond wrote.
Two of the four victims of fatal police shootings in Louisville this year were reportedly experiencing mental health crises when they were killed. After police killed 28-year-old Katelyn Hall in late March, local advocates and her family members questioned why the city doesn't send mental health professionals along with police.
Matt Mudd, a spokesperson for Greenberg, told LPM News at that time that the city was looking at implementing a co-responder program.
Asked Tuesday for an update on that plan, Greenberg declined to provide a timeline for when it might be put into action.
"We have considered several models for how this could work. We have spoken to behavioral health experts. We have spoken to prospective partners that we will use to be in partnership with LMPD on this," Greenberg said. "We are moving as rapidly as we can, and my hope is that we can have a final plan in place that can be implemented as soon as possible."
When asked by LPM at the press conference Tuesday, Humphrey said that a mental health professional should not have been dispatched on Saturday night.
"This was clearly a dangerous situation that you weren't going to insert a third party into. This needed a police response. It did not need this response," Humphrey said.
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