Louisville Police Shooting: Video Of William Young Shooting Released

LOUISVILLE, KY — Authorities have launched a public integrity investigation after a homeless man was fatally shot by at least two officers inside a vacant home in Louisville, Kentucky, over the weekend, police chief Steve Conrad told reporters at a press conference Monday.

The incident unfolded Saturday night when authorities received a call regarding "unknown trouble" at a residence on Oleanda Avenue in Louisville. A man had been inside the house, and at the time of the call, he had left the house and entered the vacant home next door, police said. When officers were dispatched, the call had been upgraded to a break-in in progress.

Conrad told reporters that officers determined someone was inside the home, and the officers announced their presence numerous times as they entered the house to search. Officers continued to announced their presence, and as they reached the top of the stairs inside the house they announced their presence again, Conrad said.

The suspect, William Allen Young Jr., 32, was to the officers' right and was crouched against the wall in an "ambush-like position," Conrad said.

Young allegedly charged at one of the officers when he was armed with an object that looked like a "meat skewer" of some sort. The object had a wooden handle and was very narrow and pointed at the end, Conrad said.

At least two of the officers began firing shots at Young, and it is possible that a third officer also fired shots, Conrad said.

One of the officers was struck with the skewer-like object in the upper chest near his throat. That officer then fell backwards and appeared to have shot himself in the left hand, according to the bodycam footage released by police. Young was struck multiple times and pronounced dead at the scene by EMS.

At the press briefing, Conrad said that policing is a dangerous job that sometimes requires "width-second" decisions that people will scrutinize for a lifetime. Conrad did not speculate or draw conclusions based on the content of the videos released and said it was imperative to conduct a thorough investigation.

The three officers, identified as Russell Braun, 31, Paige Young, 28, and Randall Richardson, 34, have been placed on administrative leave. Braun, the officer who was struck in the chest and taken to the hospital for treatment, has been with the department since 2008. Both Young and Richardson have been with the department since February 2015.

Authorities released bodycam footage from Braun and Young's cameras and said Richardson's camera did not capture the incident. Conrad spoke about the limitations of body camera limitations, such as having a "limited field of view" and that they do not provide a "stable platform for viewing."

Young's family saw the footage earlier in the day.

Speaking at a press conference, his family acknowledged that he had substance-abuse and mental issues and had been homeless for parts of the past decade, the Courier-Journal reports.

"My brother weighed 130 pounds soaking wet," Young's brother, Christopher Hall, said prior to watching the video, as reported by the Courier-Journal. "There's no way you can justify putting over 10 bullets in my little brother. ... What could he have possibly done that would justify him being shot so many times?"

Conrad said "numerous" shots were fired but said the exact number of shots fired was not known.

After viewing the video, the family said they weren't sure what it will accomplish.

Young had been arrested locally 11 times since 2003 and was found guilty or pleaded guilty to numerous charges.

Police released the following video from the two body cameras. (WARNING: The video contains graphic content and language that some may find offensive)

Image Screenshot via YouTube