Police chief fired after officers who killed man receive awards

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Mayor Dave Armstrong has fired the city's police chief after two white officers who shot an unarmed black teenager to death were given departmental awards for valor during the confrontation.

The firing Thursday night brought demands from the police union for Armstrong's resignation. Nine district police commanders stepped down from their posts in protest yesterday. And hundreds of police and their supporters marched on City Hall to decry the mayor's action.

Rick McCubbin, president of the Louisville Fraternal Order of Police, said Armstrong "committed political suicide" by firing Police Chief Gene Sherrard and had reduced police morale to its "all-time lowest."

Armstrong fired Sherrard a day after the awards ceremony. The mayor said Sherrard violated his trust by approving the awards a month ago but waiting until this week to tell him about them.

A police chief should be "forthright when it comes to information that is essential to my leading this city," the mayor said.

Sherrard refused to comment yesterday.

Armstrong appointed Sherrard, a 23-year veteran of the department, in April 1999 to improve community relations and implement more racial diversity in the 732-member department. Louisville is a city of about 260,000 people, nearly a third of whom are black.

Officers Chris Horn and Paul Kinkade, who are white, shot 18-year-old Desmond Rudolph on May 13 as he was trying to flee in a stolen vehicle that had become stuck in an alley. Rudolph died four days later.

Police fired 22 rounds into the vehicle, saying they feared Rudolph was going to run them down. The shooting sparked outrage in the black community.

The two officers were among several given the Exceptional Valor Award at a ceremony Wednesday. Kim Kraeszig, a police spokeswoman, said the two were honored not for shooting Rudolph but for surviving a risky situation.

But the mayor called the decision to honor them "premature and insensitive, and I cannot condone this action."

A grand jury cleared the officers of criminal wrongdoing, but a follow-up investigation by the city's public-safety director outlined numerous errors by Horn, Kinkade and others.

According to the report, the two officers failed to secure the stolen vehicle before knocking on the door where Rudolph was staying and failed to cover the back entrance, where he made his escape that led to the shooting.

The mayor said he has the community's support and has no plans to step down.

"There's one person the chief has to make happy and that's the elected representative of the people, and that did not take place. And so I removed him. It's not complicated," he said.

Some residents said they backed the mayor's firing of the chief.

"You've got to expect that with an issue so sensitive as this," said Dave Anderson, who is white.

Information from Reuters was included in this report.