Louisville police officer who fatally struck teen previously punished for at fault accidents
The Louisville Metro Police Department officer who fatally struck a 17-year-old boy with an unmarked police vehicle March 13 was previously punished by the department for three at-fault vehicle accidents, records obtained by The Courier Journal show.
According to LMPD documents released under Kentucky’s open records law, LMPD Lt. Jeffrey Lauder was driving the unmarked Chevy Tahoe that struck Clay Twyman in Louisville’s Portland neighborhood earlier this month.
Lauder, discipline records show, has repeatedly been involved in at-fault accidents.
In a Nov. 24, 2011 incident, Lauder “negligently operated” his vehicle “causing a motor vehicle accident,” then-LMPD Chief Steve Conrad wrote in a 2012 letter suspending Lauder for one day.
A little more than a year before that accident, then-LMPD Chief Robert White ordered Lauder to take “mandatory driver’s training” after he was “determined to be ‘at fault’ in an accident that occurred on or about June 28, 2010,” according to an internal memorandum.
And most recently, Oct. 30 of last year, current LMPD Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel wrote Lauder was issued an “oral reprimand” after he was determined to be at fault in a Nov. 7, 2022 accident.
The Courier Journal asked LMPD about the circumstances of those previous incidents, but the agency did not respond.
While LMPD typically names officers involved in incidents that result in the deaths of members of the public, the agency shared few details about the March 13 incident and has yet to publicly name Lauder.
In a March 13 statement, LMPD spokesman Dwight Mitchell said “an off-duty officer in an unmarked police vehicle was involved in a vehicle collision involving a pedestrian in the 2400 block of Bank St.”
The pedestrian, who Mitchell said was “in the roadway” and “not in a crosswalk,” later died at University of Louisville Hospital, according to LMPD.
Visiting the scene of the incident on Bank Street on Tuesday, a Courier Journal reporter observed that the nearest crosswalk was more than 900 feet away from where Twyman was hit. Another crosswalk was more than 1,300 feet in the other direction.
In a subsequent statement to The Courier Journal on Tuesday, LMPD spokesperson Angela Ingram called the incident “a traffic accident where, unfortunately, an individual lost their life” and said LMPD is in the early stages of the investigation by its Public Integrity Unit and traffic unit.
“The officer was not involved in any police action during the incident and nothing from the preliminary investigation or the ongoing investigation indicates any misconduct during the time of the accident,” Ingram said. “LMPD remains committed to a thorough investigation for all involved parties.”
While LMPD provided a brief statement, the department did not directly address many of the detailed questions The Courier Journal sent.
Documents obtained by The Courier Journal shed more light on the accident, though questions remain.
A traffic collision report said Twyman “stepped out into the travel portion of Bank Street between two parked vehicles on the left side of the roadway.” Meanwhile, Lauder’s unmarked police vehicle, a 2023 Chevy Tahoe, was traveling eastbound on the one-way street in the left lane when it struck Twyman, the report said.
The traffic collision report did not mention the speed at which Lauder’s vehicle was traveling, but said “no avoidance maneuver” was reported.
The speed limit where Twyman was hit is 35 miles per hour.
The report noted no suspected alcohol or drug use was involved and described the roadway as “not lighted.”
An internal memorandum from October punishing Lauder for a previous at-fault accident listed him as a member of SWAT, but LMPD did not respond to a question about whether he was still with SWAT.
Lauder was in the unmarked police vehicle with Shannon Lauder. A woman of the same name is listed as a fellow LMPD lieutenant according to a January 2024 list of current LMPD officers. LMPD did not respond to a question from The Courier Journal asking if the Shannon Lauder in the vehicle was an LMPD lieutenant.
A third person in the vehicle at the time of their accident had their name redacted in records provided to The Courier Journal. Louisville’s open records department noted that “juvenile identifying information” had been redacted from the documents provided to the paper, but is unclear is the third occupant was the juvenile they referenced.
The day after the accident, Louisville Public Media reported that an LMPD spokesperson told the outlet that the officer involved, who the department did not name, remained on “full duty status.”
According to LMPD policy, officers involved in uses of force or vehicle collisions “which result in death or serious physical injury (critical incident), will immediately be placed on administrative leave, pending an administrative investigation.”
LMPD did not respond to repeated questions from The Courier Journal about whether Lauder remained on full duty status and, if so, why he was not placed on administrative leave as happens with other officers involved in critical incidents.
LMPD also did not respond to a question about the circumstances surrounding the incident and why Lauder was in an unmarked police vehicle off-duty.
Officers can be granted a take-home department vehicle for personal use after one year of service as part of efforts to “increase police presence in the community.” But LMPD did not respond to a question about whether the police vehicle Lauder was in was a take-home vehicle.
At the corner of 24th and Bank Street on Tuesday, photographs of Twyman with loved ones were nailed to a wooden utility pole.
“R.I.P. Baby Clay” was written alongside them.
Reach reporter Rachel Smith at rksmith@courier-journal.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @RachelSmithNews. Reach reporter Josh Wood at jwood@courier-journal.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @JWoodJourno.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville officer fatally hits teen in unmarked police car
