David “YaYa” McAtee fell victim to a shooting which occurred during the time the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) and the Kentucky National Guard were responding to protests demanding justice for Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. He died on June 1st by a single bullet wound to the chest fired by an unidentified guard member.
What We Know:
- McAtee, 53-year-old owner of Yaya’s BBQ, was fatally injured in his own kitchen during the violent exchange in an evening of protests. His family is now seeking justice after their loved-one and community pillar of the Russell neighborhood was slain by law enforcement.
- According to USA Today, attorneys representing the McAtee family accuse officers and soldiers of mishandling the situation by using excessive force, along with directly violating department policies and orders. Police evidence suggests that the victim fired at least two rounds from a 9mm handgun, while two guard members and police officers returned around 19 shots of counter fire. Katie Crews and Austin Allen were the two officers that were identified.
- Louisville civil rights attorney Steve Romines stated that a reason for the lawsuit filed on Monday was due in part by the family never getting clear answers on what happened that night. During the weekend of the shooting, the protests raging across the city forced Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear to deploy the National Guard for the first time since 1975. Romines went onto clarify that any reports of unrest relevant to McAtee were blatantly false.
- A disruption that did occur near the area was a police raid that happened across the street at Dino’s Food Mart. That particular disruption indirectly involved McAtee when he fired back on people invading his property after local law enforcement and National Guard soldiers targeted them with pepper balls, chemical, and projectile weapons. McAtee was reportedly uninformed of the events at the Food Mart across the street.
“From inside the kitchen, Maychelle McAtee and David McAtee did not know that the persons firing (pepper balls) at the restaurant were law enforcement officers,” the lawsuit stated.
- At the time of this raid, Officer Crews was caught on camera taking a different route from her fellow officers. She approached McAtee’s property line and began to shoot pepper balls, even toward the area of the kitchen. Maychelle McAtee, the victim’s niece, was shot about three times by pepper balls. She is now a plaintiff alongside his mother Odessa Riley.
- The complaint also lists out what police and guards failed to do prior to using crowd dispersion techniques. The LMPD’s standard operating procedures include identifying themselves by name and rank, issuing a dispersal order, allow time for crowds to disperse, and warn before using chemical agents, all steps they failed to do.
Jean Porter, a spokeswoman for Mayor Greg Fischer, has said this entire event and lawsuit are still under review and no further comments have been given at this time. Moreover, Beshear’s Executive Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown has implied that there isn’t enough evidence to suggest any major discrepancies between current findings and claims that the shooting was justified based on surveillance footage.
