Two Louisville police officers shot and killed a homeless man after he lunged at them with a screwdriver, according to body camera footage released Monday.
The officers were responding to a disorderly conduct call on Sunday evening when they encountered 45-year-old Russell Bowman, who they said became confrontational and told them to shoot him, the Louisville Metro Police Department said Monday.
Officers Devin Dawes and Matthew Aden, who joined the department in 2015, fired their weapons in self-defense, the department said.
“In this situation you will see from the video that two of the officers, or actually three of the officers Tased the individual, prior to the shooting,” Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Steve Conrad said during a press conference. “Unfortunately they were not effective, which resulted in the officers having to resort to the use of deadly force.”
Body camera footage from the scene shows Bowman pacing with the screwdriver in his right hand as the officers yell for him to “drop it.”
“Just drop it, we’re not trying to hurt you,” one officer yells, while other officers deployed their Tasers unsuccessfully.
“It ain’t working,” Bowman screams, before charging toward one of the officers. Aden and Dawes immediately opened fire.
Conrad did not take any questions after the press conference, but he did reiterate the department’s use of deadly force policy.
“Police work is a dangerous job that often requires difficult split-second decisions that others will judge and scrutinize for a lifetime,” Conrad said. “We hope that we never have to fire our weapons, but when we’re forced to do so, we understand and accept the high level of public scrutiny that will result from those actions.”
He said the department is investigating the shooting.