LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Louisville community is awaiting the release of body camera footage, after LMPD says an officer 'unintentionally' discharged his gun earlier this week -- one bullet hitting two teenagers.
Now, some in the community are asking why it took so long to notify the public.
The shooting happened Monday evening around 6 p.m., but details from police into what happened weren't revealed until the following day just after 3 p.m.
WHAS11 talked to J. Michael Brown, the former Executive Cabinet Secretary under Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and former Public Safety Secretary under former Gov. Steve Beshear.
Brown says the likelihood of an accidental shooting, meaning the gun went off without someone pulling the trigger, is "extremely rare, if not impossible."
When asked if he sees any red flags with LMPD's release, Brown said "not at this point."
He continued, "We'll see again what the audio tape and what the body camera reveals, and I think that will go a lot further to determine [whether] this was unintentional."
Brown doesn't necessarily take issue with the time it took for the public to be notified about the shooting, a day later, saying he doesn't "see anything that was intentionally withheld, no."
Brown has overseen some high publicity cases, as a former lawyer and high-ranking cabinet official. It includes being the one to reveal it was a bullet from a Kentucky National Guard officer, not an LMPD officer, that killed David McAtee in the heat of the 2020 protests.
Now, Brown works in a leadership position at Simmons College of Kentucky. Given his expertise, we asked for perspective on LMPD's latest officer-involved shooting that's left two teenagers recovering from injuries.
"If there were shots fired, is there any indication they knew where it went?" he said.
Ultimately, until the body cam video and audio is released, Brown says questions like these will remain up in the air.
Meanwhile, community activists like Rhonda Mathies question if anything is being done different within the department in this new administration.
"If his gun accidentally went off, praise be to God it wasn't an accidental murder," she said. "Too many unanswered questions, we're hearing more words than action."
On Wednesday, WHAS11 asked Louisville Interim Police Chief Jackie Gwinn-Villaroel if the timeframe in details being released to the public is concerning, at all.
"No, there's not any concern that I have at this time on that," she said. "We put it out there, we did our independent investigation. LMPD is advising the public as to what we have."
There is no timeframe yet on when the body camera footage could be released.
Mayor Craig Greenberg said he's urging LMPD to get it out as quickly as possible.
WHAS11 also reached out to Kentucky State Police (KSP), asking why they're choosing to let LMPD conduct its own investigation first, in this case.
That's contrary to the policy set in 2020, where KSP has led the charge on officer-involved shootings.
WHAS11 did not receive a response to our request for comment.
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