The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Police Officer Survives Shootout

Posted on | September 21, 2023 | Comments Off on Police Officer Survives Shootout

If you should ever happen to be in Louisville, Kentucky, allow me to offer this advice: Avoid the intersection of S. 40th Street and W. Kentucky Street. As a matter of fact, you might want to avoid being anywhere near that neighborhood. But frankly, you’d do best to stay far, far away from Louisville, a “wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

Last week, in the wee hours of the morning, Officer Brandon Haley was patrolling the dangerous streets of Louisville when he encountered a vehicle with no lights. He attempted to catch up with the vehicle:

The vehicle was traveling westbound on Kentucky Street and turned south on 40th Street where the vehicle came to rest on the sidewalk. . . . Officer Haley exited his vehicle and advised that two subjects were running. As Officer Haley ran towards the vehicle, several subjects began shooting from a house on the west side of 40th Street. Officer Haley was immediately struck and fell to the ground and returned fire.
While still being shot at, Officer Haley ran to the opposite side of the street where he was met by Officer [Colin] Billotto. As Officer Billotto began assessing Officer Haley’s injuries, the subject or subjects began shooting at officers again. Officer Billotto returned fire and dragged Officer Haley to a safer position.
Officer Billotto immediately began to relay information to responding officers while rendering aid to Officer Haley. Officer Haley was placed in a police car and transported to University Hospital with life-threatening injuries. Numerous officers responded, including LMPD’s Hostage Negotiation Team, as well as SWAT. Over the course of the next several hours, five persons of interest were taken into custody and multiple guns and narcotics were seized at the scene.

Officer Haley survived his wounds. On Wednesday, Louisville police released bodycam video of the shootout, which I can’t embed here because YouTube has classified it as too violent and graphic. While no suspects have yet been charged with shooting Officer Haley, police did make multiple arrests at the scene:

Officers received a search warrant to search the house on South 40th and found various illegal drugs and nine guns — two of which were reported stolen. According to police reports, officers tried to get Dominique Thompson Jr., 27, and Quantez Porter, 28, resisted coming out of the home.
Residents told LMPD a person was hiding in their backyard. Officers found Jemond Groves, 21, hiding and a gun in a pile of brush nearby. After checking the gun, it was determined it was reported stolen.
Thompson is charged with drug trafficking, gun possession by a convicted felon and resisting arrest. Porter’s charges are drug trafficking, gun possession and resisting arrest. Groves is charged with gun possession by a convicted felon and trespassing, since he was found in another yard, and wasn’t asked to come over. A fourth man,Jaquan Ranson, was also arrested [and] faces similar charges.

In other words, while we don’t know who shot the cop, we do know that a search warrant found nine guns, two of them stolen, and two convicted felons. But am I the only one who suspects that a search warrant of any home in that neighborhood would yield similar results? The whole area is crawling with armed felons, and you’d have difficulty finding a law-abiding citizen anywhere within a five-block radius of the intersection of S. 40th Street and W. Kentucky Street. It’s Mos Eisley, in real life.

The last Republican mayor of Louisville left office in 1969.



 

Category: Crime, Kentucky

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