LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville police officer shot an armed suspect after a terrifying scene outside a Walmart near the Fairdale area on Wednesday.
Louisville Metro Police (LMPD) Interim Chief Paul Humphrey said Kentucky State Police were in a vehicle pursuit which ended around 12:15 p.m. when the car crashed near the intersection of Outer Loop and New Cut Road.
KSP told WHAS11 that troopers were trying to stop the car because the vehicle had an expired registration and the driver had a suspended license and active warrant for his arrest.
Police were able to arrest the driver without incident, however, another suspect inside the car jumped out of the car and ran into a nearby Walmart armed with two pistols.
Humphrey said officers found the man inside the store, at which point he ran outside and found a woman in the pharmacy's drive-thru. He then got into the passenger side seat "attempting to carjack and possibly kidnap the woman."
The interim chief said an officer gave multiple verbal commands before firing his gun and shooting the suspect multiple times. The man was transported to the UofL Hospital and is expected to survive.
The woman inside the car was uninjured in the shooting, however Humphrey said she's obviously shaken up.
"To have somebody armed with a gun jump in your passenger seat, is not the way you expected your day to go when you left the house this morning," he said. "We're handling that as a very serious situation, our Victims Services Unit is already working with that woman to make sure that she gets taken care of."
Whitney Taylor was shopping inside the Walmart when she saw police officers walk through the store, looking for someone, but there was no panic inside the store. Then she saw an officer with the yellow police tape.
"We didn't even know what was going on until someone came and was like 'they're about to make us leave because someone got shot,'" Taylor said. "It's just crazy that something like this can happen that fast."
Across the street at a shopping complex, Beth Ayers was making her way to the Walmart, when she saw the heavy police presence.
"I wasn't real sure what was going on, but I got down there and as I was trying to find a ramp on one of the sidewalks to get past all of the police tape, an officer took me to get inside so I wasn't out in the heat, but they weren't letting anybody in," Ayers said.
That's when she saw the bullet holes in the van, the shots by metro officers.
"It was sitting there, and it had the gunshots through the windshield, which is rather frightening," Ayers said.
She said officers responded quickly, which was reassuring to her safety.
"One of the things I wanted to do was make sure everything was safe," Ayers said. "With me being in a wheelchair, I can only go so fast. I didn't want to be anywhere I had to get away from quickly."
LMPD's Professional Integrity Unit (PIU) is investigating the shooting, Humphrey said.
"We're very grateful that nobody else was injured in this incident," he added. "We're talking about an armed suspect running from police in the middle of the afternoon in a crowded Walmart."
The officer who fired their weapon has been placed on paid, administrative leave.
Body camera video of the shooting will be released within 10 business days.
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