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Kentucky officer reprimanded for firing non-lethal rounds at 2020 protests under investigation again
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Kentucky officer reprimanded for firing non-lethal rounds at 2020 protests under investigation again

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky police officer reprimanded years later for firing chemical agents at a TV news crew during the 2020 Louisville street protests is being investigated for firing other non-lethal rounds at the same night.

Louisville Police Officer Dustin Dean received a written reprimand last week for violating the department’s use of force policy for chemical agents. He fired non-lethal pepper spray at a WAVE-TV television crew covering an intense night of street protests over the 2020 death of Breonna Taylor.

Tuesday, The Courier Journal reported that after reviewing body camera footage from a trial, he asked Louisville police about Dean firing multiple non-lethal rounds at protesters that same night.

Louisville police said in a statement Tuesday that they were only looking into Dean’s meeting with the TV crew.

“Incidents that were not part of the original investigation, and unrelated to the interaction with (the TV crew), were recently brought to the attention of Chief (Paul) Humphrey,” the statement said. Louisville police said they are “initiating an investigation into these incidents,” without providing details about the actions that prompted the new investigation.

The newspaper reported that it reviewed body camera footage from the night of May 29, 2020, which shows Dean using a 40mm non-lethal projectile launcher to hit a man walking away from the protests and also using that device to shoot the protesters. holding signs.

The paper said body camera footage also showed water bottles and other projectiles thrown at officers by protesters that night.

The FBI was the first to investigate the incident with the Louisville TV crew and three years later cleared Dean of any criminal wrongdoing. Dean was on administrative duty and was relieved of his police duties during the investigation for years, Humphrey said last week.