The act preceded a volley in which a popular barbecue chef, David McAtee, was fatally shot by a National Guard member.
A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted a former police officer in Louisville, Ky., on a charge that she used unreasonable force in firing pepper balls at a person to try to enforce a curfew during protests against police violence in 2020 — an act that led to the fatal shooting of a popular barbecue chef by a Kentucky National Guard member.
The killing of the chef, David McAtee, at his shop, YaYa’s BBQ, came as the local authorities were enforcing a curfew following two days of protesting and rioting in the wake of the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
The grand jury indicted Katie R. Crews, 29, of Jeffersonville, Ind., accusing her of violating an individual’s rights while acting as an officer of the Louisville Metro Police Department, according to a statement from the United States Department of Justice.
Ms. Crews fired a pepper ball “at an individual, while the individual was standing on private property and not posing a threat to the defendant or others,” the statement said. If convicted, Ms. Crews faces up to 10 years in prison, prosecutors said.
Efforts to reach Ms. Crews were not immediately successful.
In a statement last May, Thomas B. Wine, the Jefferson County commonwealth’s attorney, described the brief, confusing and fatal moments around midnight on May 31, 2020, when the police and National Guard members descended on the predominantly Black West End neighborhood to enforce Louisville’s curfew.
Mayor Greg Fischer had announced a 9 p.m. curfew and Gov. Andy Beshear activated the Kentucky National Guard a day earlier, after two days of protests and property damage in the city, Mr. Wine said.
On May 31, the Louisville Metro Police Department sent officers and National Guard members to the intersection of 26th Street and West Broadway, to clear people from the parking lot of Dino’s Food Market. Across the street, Mr. McAtee’s shop was still serving customers; some people in the crowd walked over.
“There was no evidence that the crowd was engaged in any type of protest or destructive behavior,” Mr. Wine said.
Ms. Crews fired several pepper balls toward where Mr. McAtee’s niece, Machelle McAtee, was standing under a blue canopy outside YaYa’s. She and several others sought shelter inside, Mr. Wine said in the statement.
One of the balls — which may not have been distinguishable at the time from other ammunition — hit a bottle on an outdoor table, according to bystander video analyzed by the visual investigations team of The New York Times. Another pepper ball, it said, came close to hitting Mr. McAtee’s niece in the head.
That’s when Mr. McAtee pointed a gun out a door and fired one shot, before stepping back inside and then re-emerging to fire a second shot, Mr. Wine said.
After the shots by Mr. McAtee, police officers and National Guard soldiers “switched from non-lethal weapons such as pepper ball guns to service weapons,” Mr. Wine said, and Ms. Crews, another Louisville police officer and two National Guard members returned fire.
Mr. McAtee was struck once in the chest, and he died before paramedics arrived around five minutes later, Mr. Wine said.
In his statement last May, Mr. Wine said he declined to pursue criminal charges against the four individuals, including Ms. Crews, who had fired a total of 19 shots during the encounter. Ms. Crews fired eight of the shots, but the shot that hit Mr. McAtee was fired by one of the two National Guard members, though it was unclear which one, Mr. Wine said.
The officers and National Guard members “reasonably believed, based on the facts and circumstances, that Mr. McAtee posed an immediate threat of death or serious injury to them or to another person,” Mr. Wine said. They were justified “to use deadly physical force in response to the deadly physical force used by Mr. McAtee against them.”
The federal indictment on Wednesday addressed the firing of the pepper balls, not the actual shooting death of Mr. McAtee.
The Louisville police department said that Ms. Crews was on paid administrative leave from June 1, 2020, until she was fired last month, The Louisville Courier Journal reported.
A lawyer who has previously represented Mr. McAtee’s family could not immediately be reached late Wednesday.
