Updated: Man having mental crisis hit by Lexington officer in cruiser, cops say
Lexington police were investigating Wednesday after a man having a mental crisis was hit by an officer driving a police car.
The 19-year-old man ran into the road Tuesday night and was struck by an officer arriving on the scene near Larkspur Drive in the Garden Springs area, police said. A social worker had called 911 and said the man verbally threatened — over the phone — to harm his caseworker, police said.
The man threatened officers and was holding a knife when they arrived to do a welfare check, police said. The man then fled on foot.
“Officers initiated a foot pursuit,” Sgt. Donnell Gordon said. “While fleeing, the individual ran into the roadway and was struck by another officer arriving on the scene.”
The preliminary investigation indicated that the collision was entirely accidental, Gordon said.
Officers immediately requested an ambulance and the man was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said Tuesday night.
But some members of the Lexington community Wednesday expressed growing concern that police were downplaying the extent of the man’s injuries from the crash. Some of the city’s prominent racial justice protest organizers, including April Taylor and James Woodhead, said the man may have suffered significant head injuries.
Police on Friday denied an open records request filed by the Herald-Leader to release bodycam footage of the incident. The denial came after several people in the community called on the police department to release unedited bodycam footage of the incident to ensure transparency about the severity of the collision.
The police department’s Open Records Unit stated in its denial that the video couldn’t be released because police were actively investigating.
Gordon said the Lexington Police Department couldn’t comment any further on the man’s condition due to the mental health aspect of the case.
Police initially said it wasn’t clear if the injured man would face any charges regarding the threats. Police needed to investigate further and the man’s mental health had to be treated first, Gordon said.
The officer who hit the man went through “critical incident testing,” which involves drug and alcohol testing, Gordon said. The results of those tests weren’t released.
The names of the officer and the man who was hit weren’t immediately released.
This story was originally published March 31, 2021 at 7:03 AM.