'It's not that complicated': LMPD chief responds after woman dragged from car
Louisville Police Chief Paul Humphrey said he was well aware of a Louisville woman's social media post showing her being pulled from her car by an LMPD officer.
"So, the question was about the video circulating on social media with the woman that alleged she was pulled from a car," Humphrey said during his bi-weekly press conference on May 15. "It's not an allegation. We pulled her out of the car. And we are aware of it."
That woman is Kearie Watts. After spending Mother's Day at her grandmother's house in the Parklands neighborhood, Watts told The Courier Journal she began to drive home. Phone metadata from a video shot by her passenger shows that Watts was driving on 36th Street between Grand and Hale a little after 3 a.m. on May 12.
At the same time, officers were called to the area following a ShotSpotter notification and multiple calls reporting a person shot.
Watts told The Courier Journal she saw a "bunch of police cars parked with their lights on." She said there was no yellow crime scene tape. She was trying to get to the highway to head back to St. Matthews.
"When the police officer, he approached me, he didn't ask me to leave, he told me to get off his crime scene, and I was interfering," Watts told The Courier Journal. "I didn't know. As we're exchanging words, there are still police pulling up, so at this point, I can't even back out. As we're talking, another police officer was now putting yellow tape out.
"I never would have pulled onto the street because it's common sense that you don't do that if there was yellow crime scene tape."
Watts said the officer also told her to go through an alley instead, but she said she didn't want to drive down a dark alley so late at night.
Veah Kinslow, Watts' passenger, began to take video of the exchange between the officer and Watts. She said the phone metadata, which she provided to The Courier Journal, says she began recording at 3:16 a.m. at 1120 S. 36th Street, which is the same location as the nightclub shooting where police responded "a little past 3 a.m.," per a statement released by the department.
The video begins with Watts in the driver's seat with both hands in her lap, her left hand holding her phone. The driver's side door is open. An unidentified officer reaches his left hand into the car and grabs Watts by her white crop-top shirt and pulls her to the pavement outside her vehicle. His right hand grabs her bicep as he pulls her. Her phone hits the ground, too.
Kinslow begins to scream.
"The car is still in drive," she says.
The officer placed Watts in handcuffs, but she was not arrested or given a court date.
"A standard use of force report investigation will be done, and we'll make sure that everything was done the right way," Humphrey said.
The post to her Facebook page about the incident has been shared more than 950 times.
Watts provided the name of the officer, but The Courier Journal has not been able to confirm it with LMPD.
"What I will say is that when the police tell you to leave, I'd advise you to leave. So you won't get pulled out of your car," Humphrey said. "Now, if that officer did anything wrong in the meantime, we'll take care of that. You can trust we'll take care of that. But when we're dealing with a shooting, the last thing we need is somebody who can't follow simple directions. Like, leave. It's not that complicated."
Stephanie Kuzydym is an enterprise and investigative sports reporter. She can be reached at skuzydym@courier-journal.com. Follow her at @stephkuzy.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: LMPD chief Paul Humphrey talks about woman dragged from car
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