Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) Maj. Aubrey Gregory and Officer Robinson Desroches were the officers shot Wednesday evening when responding to protests, city officials said.
Both are expected to recover. Gregory, who has been leading the police response to protests and testified about it before Metro Council this month, was shot in the hip, and treated and released. Desroches was shot in the abdomen and is recovering after surgery.
Interim Chief Robert Schroeder said he's grateful the officers will survive their injuries, and that last night's situation could have been "so much worse" for officers and those protesting when the gunfire rang out.
Mayor Greg Fischer said the shooting was “obviously, completely unacceptable,” and expressed his gratitude for LMPD officers.
"Violence will only be a source for pain, not a cure for pain," he said.
Schroeder said Larynzo Johnson, 26, was arrested in connection with the shooting, and charged with two counts of first-degree assault on a police officer and 14 counts of first-degree wanton endangerment. When asked why he wasn't charged with attempted murder, Schroeder said "the investigation is still early and ongoing," and he needed to consult with the Public Integrity Unit.
He said the weapon was a handgun, and declined to address whether the alleged shooter was a protester.
During the press briefing Wednesday night, Schroeder said the shooting happened when officers were responding to shots fired in a large crowd downtown. But arrest records obtained by WFPL say officers "were conducting crowd control operations...in response to a large crowd that had set fires, caused property damage and failed to disperse after being warned."
Louisville police made a total of 127 protest-related arrests in the hours after a grand jury announced it was indicting former LMPD officer Brett Hankison for three counts of wanton endangerment in the Breonna Taylor case. Those counts were related to bullets Hankison fired that ended up in another apartment; none were connected to Taylor's death or her apartment.
The two other officers, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Officer Myles Cosgrove, were not charged, and Attorney General Daniel Cameron said the evidence showed they were justified when they fired their weapons because they were returning fire from Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker.
Mattingly was shot by Walker, Cameron said. He recovered from his injuries.
Of the 127 protest-related arrests on Wednesday, police records show the most common charges included unlawful assembly, breaking the 9 p.m. curfew, failure to disperse, and obstruction. Police also charged several people for rioting, fleeing and criminal trespassing. They charged two people for third-degree assault, one for concealed carrying of a deadly weapon without a permit, and two for possession of marijuana.
This story has been updated.
