Louisville officer who shot man following carjacking attempt identified
Two people were hospitalized Sunday after a Louisville Metro Police officer shot a man following a carjacking attempt that left another person injured, according to a department representative.
The shootings occurred about 5 p.m. in the Algonquin neighborhood, near Patton Court and Harrod Court, LMPD spokeswoman Beth Ruoff said at a press briefing just after 9 p.m.
Officers had responded to a reported carjacking where a person was shot, she said, when a man started shooting at the police on scene. An officer shot back, she said, and injured the man, sending him to University of Louisville Hospital where he was treated for what are believed to be non-life-threatening injuries.
The person in the carjacking was hospitalized as well and is also expected to recover, she said at the time.
The LMPD officer who fired his weapon was identified on Jan. 21 as William Stull.
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Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer reassigned investigations of shootings involving LMPD officers to Kentucky State Police officials in July 2020, in the months after the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor. However, Louisville and state police are currently "triaging" the probe into Sunday's shooting, Ruoff said, as more state police resources have been directed to respond to the devastating series of tornadoes that tore through Western Kentucky over the weekend.
"At this point we are actually holding the scene and we're communicating with them to determine the course of the investigation, just depending on resources and how we can get everybody here and how that looks for us," she said. "We're still determining all of those factors at this moment."
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LMPD did not say Sunday whether officers at the scene were wearing body cameras at the time of the shooting, and the department did not provide more information in a subsequent email. The department later confirmed that officers had been wearing body cameras.
Ruoff said it was not yet confirmed that the man who she said fired at officers was involved in the carjacking but "the likelihood of them being connected is probably pretty high."
The suspect was later identified as Howard Harris, 45. He was charged with attempted murder, first degree wanton endangerment of a police officer and convicted felon in possession of a handgun in the case, according to court records.
Anyone with additional information is encouraged to call the department's anonymous tip hotline at 502-574-5673, she said.
This story will be updated.
Lucas Aulbach can be reached at laulbach@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4649 or on Twitter @LucasAulbach.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: LMPD shooting: Officer shoots man after carjacking attempt, police say
