Investigative file into fatal Kentucky police shooting details critical missteps
Newly released Kentucky State Police files shed light onto the late-night December 2024 fatal shooting of a rural Laurel County man, revealing a flawed operation by police who critics say were confused, unprepared and rushed.
The nearly 1,000-page investigative file confirmed for the first time late last week that officers with the London Police Department were at the wrong address when they forced their way into a mobile home on Vanzant Road in Lily and shot a man minutes before midnight Dec. 23, 2024.
Douglas “Doug” Harless, 63, was awoken by officers shining lights through his windows and banging on his door. Police say he raised a 9 mm pistol at them when they encountered him in his living room, and they responded by shooting him five times in the head, neck, chest and extremities. He died at the scene.
The file details for the first time the crucial events leading up to the late-night raid as officers attempted to serve a search warrant for stolen lawn equipment. Critical steps expected in such operations, like verifying the address, coordinating roles among officers and establishing a clear operational plan, appear incomplete or entirely absent from the record.
“They’re supposed to have an operational plan,” said Howard Mann, an attorney for Harless’ family, which is suing the city and its police department for wrongful death. “They’re supposed to, you know, go through and almost check the boxes to make sure — make absolutely certain — they know where they are and what they’re doing. They didn’t do that.”
Instead, officers used web-based maps and outdated property valuation data that ultimately directed them to the wrong home. They huddled together for a short, informal briefing before the raid without writing a plan or having written risk assessment, according to the file.
Following the 2020 death of Breonna Taylor at the hands of Louisville police, a statewide attorney general’s office Search Warrant Task Force recommended stricter planning and oversight for such operations, including detailed tasks for individual officers and calculated risk assessments. Although the recommendations were geared toward SWAT teams carrying out no-knock warrants, the policies and practices have been adopted by some local law enforcement agencies.
The seniormost supervising officer on the scene, Capt. Ryan Jackson, told investigators he did not review the warrant before it was executed.
Repeated calls to the London Police Department went unanswered Monday.
A mistaken address
Harless was not the subject of the warrant, nor was he ever considered a suspect in disappearance of a weed eater that had been reported stolen from a home owned by Laurel County Judge-Executive David Westerfield.
According to testimony in the files reviewed by the Herald-Leader, officers announced their presence and knocked repeatedly on his door. They heard sounds of movement inside and a voice, but they couldn’t understand what Harless was saying.
“You couldn’t understand what he was saying, but you expected him to understand and believe that it was the police beating down his door at midnight?” said Jamie Burns, a community organizer who has been calling for justice in the 16 months since the incident.
In a matter of seconds, the report details, officers forced entry, pushing the front door into Harless, who was standing inches away. The man began raising both hands — one reportedly holding a gun and the other in a gesture police said they believed was intended to pull the slide on the weapon and chamber a round.
“I looked straight down the barrel of that gun,” Det. Joshua Morgan, who shot Harless five times with his patrol rifle, told KSP investigators four days after the incident. “Everything was like it was in slow motion. My finger hit the, the safety switch, and then, as the gun was coming I was firing, and then, the guy hit the ground and then, uh, I, I paused for a second, and, and, just stood there.”
Video captured from a neighbor’s surveillance camera indicates Morgan, the sole officer who fired, shot Harless less than two minutes after pulling onto the scene. Officers on scene were also armed with non-lethal force, but did not deploy it.
Officers did not appear to have conducted a detailed risk assessment ahead of time, nor did they establish clear contingencies for what might happen if the situation escalated. Instead, the operation is described as unfolding in a reactive manner, with decisions made in real time, rather than guided by a coordinated strategy.
It remains unclear why police opted to execute a warrant for missing lawn equipment so late in the evening, although the files do suggest police were concerned the equipment had been traded for drugs. The Kentucky Search Warrant Task Force recommends officers consider “the time of day that is most appropriate for service.”
“What are they doing out there at 10 minutes till midnight looking for a weed eater?” Mann asked. “I’m still dissatisfied with the picture these files paint about the rush they seemed to have been in to be there at midnight for a weed eater.”
More calls for justice
In February, a Laurel County grand jury declined to indict Morgan or any of the other nine officers involved in the late-night raid, which observers say they find difficult to reconcile with the facts laid out in the KSP file.
The details outlined in the report have raised new concerns about training, oversight and decision-making within the department.
“The police department has to be looked at from the top down, and I think it’s probably going to have to be cleaned out of some of the officers,” said Tracie Handley, a short-time former mayor of London who is running to replace embattled Mayor Randall Weddle in this year’s election. “There’s going to have to be a complete review of policies.”
If elected, she said she would consider an interlocal agreement with the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office to temporarily assume police operations in the city in order to thoroughly root out problems the KSP files have laid bare.
Weddle did not immediately respond to a Herald-Leader request for comment Monday. He and police officials said they would use the KSP’s investigative file to conduct an internal investigation into what breakdowns may have occurred the night Harless died.
Meanwhile, several Laurel County officials have called for a civil rights investigation into Harless’ death, citing the city’s lack of transparency regarding the incident and the widespread belief that, without reforms, a similar mistaken address on the part of officers could have deadly consequences again.
Details in the file will be crucial for federal investigators who are already investigating London police for alleged misuse of criminal background check software.
“The key question is not whether a mistake occurred, but whether the officers actions were objectively reasonable at the time,” said Ilana Friedman, an assistant law professor at the University of Kentucky’s J. David Rosenberg College of Law. “Key issues will likely include whether officers took reasonable steps to verify the address, how information was communicated to responding officers, those on the scene (and from) department dispatch and whether any breakdowns reflect an isolated error or a broader failure in planning or supervision.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 9:36 AM.
