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LMPD officer reprimanded for firing pepper balls at news crew during 2020 protests

Investigators said they heard Ofc. Dusten Dean command the crew to "move" in his body camera footage before he shot 12 pepper balls at the ground, then more at them.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville Metro Police (LMPD) officer received a letter of reprimand in October for firing pepper balls — which are like paintballs loaded with pepper spray — at a news crew during the 2020 protests.

The incident happened the second night of protests over the death of Breonna Taylor. LMPD made the letter public Thursday.

In a review of the incident, the department's Professional Standards Unit (PSU) found the news crew from WAVE 3 were covering the protests on May 29, 2020 when they said they were hit by pepper balls.

According to the PSU investigation, Officer Dusten Dean was part of the Special Response Team at the time, and helped give dispersal orders to protestors at Jefferson Square Park that night; however, the news crew stayed in the area.

Authorities found video from WAVE 3 that confirmed the journalist wasn't wearing anything that identified her as a journalist but had on a reflective vest, and the videographer was only wearing a bulletproof vest with the word "press" on the front.

The video confirmed the videographer was also wearing a vest and construction helmet in case of potential escalations that night, and that he also had a spotlight mounted on his video camera.

Investigators said they heard Dean command them to "move back, move back" in his body camera footage before he shot 12 pepper balls at the ground, then more higher up.

The day after, video started circulating of the incident, and authorities found Dean had told his commanding officer he was the officer in the video. He also told his commanding officer that he didn't know they were with the media and that all he could see was the light.

Dean had also said protestors had shown lights in officers' faces the night before to try and blind them and then started throwing objects at them. Additionally, his department-issued equipment -- the gas mask and face shield -- would fog up and give off a glare, making it difficult to see.

Therefore, when he saw the light from the crew's spotlight, Dean said he couldn't see anything behind or near the light, according to the investigation.

When they moved forward, authorities found Dean shot the first 12 pepper balls toward the ground, and when the light didn't move back, he shot higher up towards the light and stopped when the light retreated.

As a result, Dean was an administrative reassignment for about 2.5 years while both the PSU and Department of Justice investigated this incident.

The PSU officers found that Dean violated policy because of where the pepper balls hit the videographer, in the neck. Policy states pepper balls should not be shot at the neck, face or head. 

"I also factor in how Officer Dean behaved afterwards," Chief Paul Humphrey said in a news conference on Thursday. "He had the option to be a bad employee, and he took the high road. Took this on, accepted the fact he was under investigation, accepted the fact he was being investigated by the FBI for civil rights violations. Accepted the fact he made a mistake."

Since the incident, LMPD said its made several changes to the way it instructs officers to use force. They have since introduced the Force Investigative Review Unit, which investigates how LMPD uses tasers, pepper balls and other tools.

That unit also does training for commanding officers on the department's updated procedures on when force can be used.

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