The same Louisville police officer who shot pepper balls at a TV news crew during the 2020 protests is facing new allegations for firing the same munition at other people he was annoyed with the same night.
Louisville Metro Police late last week released a letter of reprimand that was his entire punishment for firing at the journalists, an incident that was broadcast live on TV. One of the reporters targeted in the incident said the punishment is not enough.
In 2020, officer Dusten Dean fired more than a dozen pepper balls at reporter Kaitlin Rust and videographer James Dobson, who both worked for WAVE 3 at the time. The two were covering a protest at Jefferson Square Park following the police killing of Breonna Taylor.
Video from Dobson’s camera showed Dean breaking from a police line to approach Rust and Dobson. Dean then raised his launcher and pelted pepper ball rounds at the journalists.
“I’m getting shot!” Rust said live on air, “Rubber bullets, oh wait, it’s those pepper bullets. They just shot me in the shin.”
Dean fired another round at her and Dobson.
According to a letter released by LMPD last month, Dean said he didn’t know Rust and Dobson were journalists when he fired at them because he couldn’t see well through his face shield.
At the time, Dobson was wearing a bulletproof vest labeled “PRESS” on the front. Rust was wearing a reflective vest and holding a microphone.
“Everyone could tell what we were doing,” Rust told LPM News on Thursday. “We were not acting in any sort of menacing or threatening way, and we were very clearly in outfits that protesters would not wear.”
Rust said she quit her job at WAVE 3 six months after the incident. She now lives in New Orleans and works in public affairs for the New Orleans police department. She said that event changed her life.
“Once everything kind of wound down, I was so destroyed,” she said. “And I felt like I wanted to quit the news altogether.”
‘Gross oversight’
Katherine Jacobsen is a program coordinator with the Committee to Protect Journalists, based in Washington D.C. She said this kind of behavior towards journalists is “incredibly concerning” and “a gross oversight.”
“It is police officers' jobs to go out there and de-escalate situations to make it safe for people to exercise their First Amendment rights and protest and for journalists to do their jobs and document these protests,” Jacobsen said. “And when there's a failure and a breakdown in that system and one group fails to do their job, they should be held accountable for that, and there should be some sort of reckoning.”
Jacobsen said she spent much of 2020 advocating for journalists who covered protests during the nationwide racial reckoning. She said the case in Louisville reminded her of how often she would hear stories of journalists getting attacked by police during protests.
In Detroit, an officer fired rubber bullets at three photojournalists covering protests after the police killing of George Floyd. One of the bullets hit a journalist in the head, closely missing her eye. Last month, that case against the officer was dropped.
Dean received no charges after a long FBI investigation. Louisville Police Chief Paul Humphrey only found that he violated a single department policy: “use of chemical agents (2nd deployment).”
“He's gotten a pretty significant punishment,” Louisville Police Chief Paul Humphrey said at a press conference last week, before the allegations about Dean pepper-balling protesters emerged.
When she heard Dean’s only punishment was the reprimand letter, Rust said she was disappointed.
“My mind went blank, and I just kind of sat there numb,” she said. “And then anger kicked in, because I just can't believe there is such a departure from reality here.”
LMPD did not contact her at any point during its investigation into Dean, Rust said.
She said the letter made her think about police misconduct she witnessed when she was a reporter in Louisville.
“It infuriates me that this department that has promised to improve and constitutionally police is demonstrating the same patterns that have already been pointed out, and they are trying to deceive the public into thinking that this was justified and just make it go away,” she said.
In a scathing, 90-page report on LMPD practices, investigators from the U.S. Department of Justice found “less-lethal force” incidents were often under-reported and unwarranted.
Latest allegations
On Tuesday, LMPD released a statement acknowledging new allegations against Dean. The other allegations were brought to Humphrey’s attention recently, said LMPD spokesperson Angela Ingram.
“He takes this matter seriously and is initiating an investigation into those incidents,” Ingram said. “The police department will provide an expedient review of the new allegations.”
According to reporting from the Courier Journal, body camera footage from the same night showed Dean fired pepper balls at a man that was milling around Jefferson Square Park in downtown Louisville.
“I’m tired of this guy,” Dean said as he pelted a second round of pepper balls at the man.
Later in the night, body camera footage showed Dean also launched pepper balls at a group of protesters with signs reading “#JUSTICEFORBREONNA” and “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.” In the footage, Dean said he wanted to get the group to drop their signs when he fired at them.
Previous Courier Journal reporting also revealed that Dean used a “mocking tone” and fired more at other people in Jefferson Square Park. It is unclear who he fired at because his body camera dislodged at certain points during the night.
Rust said she has “cautious optimism” about the new investigation.
“I really do think that some accountability really needs to happen,” she said. “I've been begging for it for over four years now. I've been continuously ignored, and now….I only hope that the chief makes this right and does the right thing this time.”
Dean is back on active duty and is now a detective.
