Federal judge dismisses wrongful death lawsuit against 3 LMPD officers in 2017 shooting
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A federal judge found three officers justified in shooting and killing a man in 2017 in south Louisville, dismissing a wrongful death lawsuit.William Young Jr. was shot several times in February 2017 by Louisville Metro Police Department officers who were responding to a reported break-in at a vacant home on Oleanda Avenue.Body camera video showed Young Jr. charging at Officer Russell Braun with what police described as a meat skewer, forcing officers to shoot the homeless man.The commonwealth’s attorney reviewed the case and determined no charges would be filed against officers Braun, Paige Young and Randall Richardson. Young’s family then filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court.U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Beaton ruled last week that the officers were justified in opening fire because body-camera footage showed them defending themselves against Young, 32, who they were trying to remove from the vacant home.”Young immediately lunged at the first officer with a metal skewer. Three officers responded by shooting Young at a very close range. Young died soon after. Practically all of this is captured on body-camera footage,” Beaton wrote in his ruling.The coroner said Young was pronounced dead at the scene and he died of multiple gunshot wounds. Then-police Chief Steve Conrad said, at the time, that Braun had an injury to his chest and a gunshot wound in the hand.All three officers were reinstated in August 2017 and then Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine announced in March 2018 that he would not file charges against the officers.In his ruling, Beaton said he reviewed the lawsuit, adding that Young’s relatives claimed excessive force by the officers because of their “allegedly unreasonable actions before the shooting: their warrantless entry and subsequent walk up the stairway.””But binding precedent confines the analysis to the use of force itself, not to previous actions that might have violated different constitutional rights earlier in the chase of causation,” Beaton wrote in his ruling.Beaton concluded that, “the use of force here was indisputably reasonable.”The attorney for Young’s family filed an appeal Friday with the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
A federal judge found three officers justified in shooting and killing a man in 2017 in south Louisville, dismissing a wrongful death lawsuit.
William Young Jr. was shot several times in February 2017 by Louisville Metro Police Department officers who were responding to a reported break-in at a vacant home on Oleanda Avenue.
Body camera video showed Young Jr. charging at Officer Russell Braun with what police described as a meat skewer, forcing officers to shoot the homeless man.
The commonwealth’s attorney reviewed the case and determined no charges would be filed against officers Braun, Paige Young and Randall Richardson. Young’s family then filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court.
U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Beaton ruled last week that the officers were justified in opening fire because body-camera footage showed them defending themselves against Young, 32, who they were trying to remove from the vacant home.
“Young immediately lunged at the first officer with a metal skewer. Three officers responded by shooting Young at a very close range. Young died soon after. Practically all of this is captured on body-camera footage,” Beaton wrote in his ruling.
The coroner said Young was pronounced dead at the scene and he died of multiple gunshot wounds. Then-police Chief Steve Conrad said, at the time, that Braun had an injury to his chest and a gunshot wound in the hand.
All three officers were reinstated in August 2017 and then Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine announced in March 2018 that he would not file charges against the officers.
In his ruling, Beaton said he reviewed the lawsuit, adding that Young’s relatives claimed excessive force by the officers because of their “allegedly unreasonable actions before the shooting: their warrantless entry and subsequent walk up the stairway.”
“But binding precedent confines the analysis to the use of force itself, not to previous actions that might have violated different constitutional rights earlier in the chase of causation,” Beaton wrote in his ruling.
Beaton concluded that, “the use of force here was indisputably reasonable.”
The attorney for Young’s family filed an appeal Friday with the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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