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The fatal shooting of a naked, unarmed man by a Louisville Metro Police officer is drawing intense scrutiny as investigators examine whether the use of deadly force was justified.
According to reporting by WHAS11, Louisville Metro Police Officer Nathan Stotts shot and killed 27-year-old Martin Nitzken Jr. on May 30 while responding to a domestic disturbance call in the city’s Klondike neighborhood.
The incident has quickly become one of the most controversial officer-involved shootings in Louisville this year.
Police Chief Paul Humphrey removed Stotts from his position just days after the shooting, a move legal observers say is unusual given the speed of the decision.
Stotts, assigned to LMPD’s Sixth Division, joined the department in February 2024 and reportedly had no disciplinary history prior to the incident.
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Body Camera Footage Raises Questions
Recently released body camera footage shows Nitzken naked and unarmed during the encounter.
The footage has fueled debate about whether the situation should have been handled as a mental health crisis rather than a deadly force incident.
According to a 911 caller, Nitzken was bipolar and had allegedly assaulted his girlfriend and two friends before police arrived.
Criminal defense attorney Carl Price, who reviewed the footage, told WHAS11 that Nitzken’s condition should have immediately raised concerns about a possible mental health episode.
“He is a man that is naked in the street,” Price said. That is totally abnormal, so the first thing that should come to anybody’s mind, not just the police officer’s mind, is that there might be a mental episode happening here.
Price questioned whether officers adequately considered that possibility before the shooting.
Could Charges Follow?
The shooting remains under active criminal investigation.
Price told WHAS11 he expects both civil litigation and criminal charges to be considered.
According to Price, any potential criminal case would likely focus on allegations of reckless conduct and whether non-lethal options should have been explored before deadly force was used.
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Those opinions, however, represent only one legal perspective. Investigators have not announced any criminal charges, and authorities continue reviewing the circumstances surrounding the encounter.
As with all officer-involved shootings, prosecutors will ultimately determine whether the officer’s actions violated criminal law.
Another Officer-Involved Shooting Under the Microscope
The shooting of Martin Nitzken has also renewed attention on Louisville Metro Police Department’s use-of-force incidents.
According to WHAS11, LMPD has now released video from four deadly officer-involved shootings in 2026 alone.
That number is likely to intensify public scrutiny as the department continues to face questions about training, de-escalation tactics, and responses involving individuals experiencing mental health crises.
For now, investigators are working through the evidence while Nitzken’s family and the Louisville community await answers.
The central question remains unresolved:
When officers encountered an unarmed man in apparent distress, was deadly force the only option available?
That’s a question investigators (and potentially a jury) may eventually have to answer.
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Not enough info here in my opinion. What was the naked guy doing at the time besides being outside naked…? Understand abnormal behavior and the reports of what he was alleged to have done, but what was he doing…the circumstances in total…when he was shot that was considered an imminent threat to life/safety and could not be handled any other way…?
Right! What a dumbass report by this author. Where are the details??? He must be the drama queen in his home!
Well, let’s see. Of course now, after this incident, people are saying that the suspect was unstable; was bi-polar. The caller to 911 said that this suspect had assaulted his girlfriend and two others. There is no mention in this of any weapons having been used in the assaults.
It is always nice when someone can sit back and look at what happened and have time to break it down in a relaxed situation. How aboutt training….? Well, that pretty much goes out the window when the officer(s) arrive on scene. Taser….doesn’t always work; pepper spray….it doesn’t always work, especially with mental suspects. How about ” less lethal “….not something that every officer has.
So, after having spent 47yrs working the street in a major west coast city, I can tell you that there is no amount of training that is going to cover situations like mentally challenged suspects.
Any time you go ” hands on ” with a suspect with mental issues, it is not going to be prety. Unlike in the movies / Hollywood, there is just no amount of training that will not risk an officer from being severly injured in an attempt to arrest a ssupect. Well, other than using the CHOKE HOLD. Watch an MMA fight and see how it is used and how quickly it stops the fight. It works in every situation I have encountered and it quickly puts the suspect out. Will there be instances where the suspect may end up injured…? Sure, however, I am sure that it would be a better ” tool ” to use for controlling the suspect.
Just about all officer involved incidents where the suspect ends up injured or dead, if the suspect would have just done what the officer told the suspect to do, the results of the arrest would have given the suspect their chance to complain about the incident.
So….if you have not ever been in a FIGHT or had to try and control a suspect with MENTAL ISSUES, take a moment to think about what you would do….other than go sit in your car.
The simple fact remains he didn’t try the taser and he didn’t try pepper spray and that’s probably what they’re going to look at. And ridiculous enough… If he would’ve used the chokehold and the individual died, since precedence has been set by the liberals in other cases… He would be definitely going to prison instead of maybe.
I always wanted to be in law-enforcement and it wasn’t until I got a little bit older that I realized I don’t have the temperament for it. I wouldn’t shoot an individual for something like that but I would’ve kicked the shit out of him and most likely I would’ve been arrested, lol.
“I always wanted to be in law-enforcement and it wasn’t until I got a little bit older that I realized I don’t have the temperament for it”
okay i’m calling you out as a bullshitter! your so full of it your eyes are brown! just like you were in combat…and all the other claims you made, pure bullshit!!! you called me out….bad decision on your part since i read your i’ve done everything flip flopping posts.
Paul… you’re a child and a wee cunt. Please shut up, the adults are talking.
Something like 15 years ago a police officer in a city near Seattle, WA was killed by a poor naked man who was in crisis. Officer tried to get him off the freeway and the guy knocked him out, took the officer’s gun and killed him. This was in the middle of a freeway with lots of witnesses. Not saying what happened there was the same as what happened in Louisville but just pointing out how dangerous the situation can be.
If you have never been a cop please don’t judge a cop.
That’s bullshit… Their actions can be judged but at the same time, we realize they are not infallible. There have been many many incidents were escalation was not necessary and it was done. I don’t care if you call that lack of training or the wrong person for the job and my guess is, it’s the latter of the two. This country has a problem with younger generations not stepping up to the plate whether it’s politics or workforce. The last thing you could get one of these children to do is become a cop because they just wanna be influencers and make $1 million a year. Takes a special person that wants to help their community to become a police officer and I think those people are running thin in the population. Because of that, we get stuck with people with less brains, morals, ability to deal with situations under stress and they need a job with benefits.
I see the same thing in the military and I’m glad I retired when I did. I actually know of an individual who got PTSD from launching helicopters in the Middle East. His poor little snowflake ass couldn’t handle the pressure of knowing what the helicopters were doing when they got there. My guess is he just wanted a free paycheck from the VA for PTSD.
BTW, that R.Kane, not me either and GA would probably know if I’m lying or NOT.
The guy already assaulted 2 to 3 other people and most psych cases are due to long term drug/alcohol abuse. Unarmed guy still had fists, teeth and probably extreme strenghth. I wasn’t there but I have dealt with psychotic patients and they are definitely unnerving.
Family calls police….police have to make complicated and sometimes split-second decisions….then family sues. How convenient for them and the attorneys. Call the shrink or non-emergency line next time….let’s see how they handle it
Cops in the U.S. are not trained in much of anything. Some districts give only 4 weeks training before turning Cops loose to gun people down. It seems to be always their first choice in solving any problem. Lack of training in handling a mental health crisis has been discussed many times and at the highest level of government but Republicans do not want to spend the money to finance training of Cops because they consider citizens to be expendable to save money. This is how depraved Republicans really are.
There are those saying “All Cops Are Bastards” and proving they believe it by voting to withhold all funding from anything police related, including training. It’s not Republicans who are voting to defund the police.
Don’t call the cops then, like I said. Handle the naked man talking gibberish yourself. Or call the “psychiatric hot line” to “talk him down.” Let us know how that works out for you, ok? And if you get hurt in the process, or the city doesn’t have the money or social workers willing to keep coming out for these calls, OH WELL…..
I hate to second guess the police, especially since I haven’t seen the video and don’t know the circumstances behind the shooting, but I question the need to shoot and kill a naked, unarmed nut-case obviously suffering a mental episode, unless the cop was physically attacked and in direct fear of this life.
Like I said, I haven’t seen the video, nor do I want to, but how close was the guy when he shot him? Could he not back off to the safety of his cruiser and await back-up? Or use non-lethal, like a taser?
Just say’n…
Quote——————According to WHAS11, LMPD has now released video from four deadly officer-involved shootings in 2026 alone.———quote
There is something very wrong about this out of control Police Department.
I might add that in “civilized countries” like in Europe and especially in Germany Cops are given 2 years of intensive training before being allowed out on the street. Their training includes what to do when encountering a mental health crisis situation and how to deescalate situations before they get out of control. German Police are also given training when encountering people who are severely injured.
Tell 18-year-old Henry Nowak from the UK about ‘”civilized countries” like in Europe.’ Oh wait, you can’t because 21-year-old Vickrum Digwa stabbed him to death and the woke British PD assumed the White Man was guilty and allowed Nowak to bleed to death. Nowak was totally innocent LE should be in trouble.
On the other hand, a naked Alphanso Talley shot and killed CPD Officer John Bartholomew and seriously wounded his partner at Swedish Covenant Hospital.
‘O the Police more training.’
Get a clue, the training tends to make LE more aggressive. How about, there is an assumption of risk when people are acting crazy.
Nice try Kane. As usual you cannot see the forest for the trees. U.S. Killer cops on average gun down or murder over 1,500 people a year. In Germany one year the German Cops killed 6 people and of all people the Chinese killed only 4 people. Nice try in cherry picking but it only shows your blind allegiance to authority when they commit cold blooded murder here in the U.S.
Once again Kane you proved your ignorance on yet another subject. Try again Kane I love it when you keep making an utter fool of yourself.
dacian, a Communist apologist, claims that I have “blind allegiance to authority.” I call balls and strikes and will prove that fact with this post.
I criticized British LE in the Henry Nowak case after you brought Europe LE. Predictably, you are going to say that my stance was based on race the victim Nowak who was White, and his killer is a Sikh. Fine, I will use another example.
Here comes the Check Mate.
The GUNSAMERICA archives document several posts I wrote supporting the case against a White Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson in the killing of the Black victim, Sonya Massey. Both those names could be used in a simple article search on GUNSAMERICA. Your statement is thus proven false.
I will initially give you the benefit of doubt and write your totally false accusation of “blind allegiance to authority when they commit cold blooded murder here in the U.S.” to your very limited intelligence quotient. What you should do immediately is retract your false statement or you also become a proven liar.
Kane you Moron you would not know the difference between a Liberal or a Communist or a Socialist if they walked up and punched you in the nose. You have no idea what either term even means.
And you have consistently supported Cops except of course when they shot the Lady Strom Trooper Ashli Babbitt (or other Far Right Fanatics) that was climbing through the window on Jan. 6th.
quote———–I criticized British LE in the Henry Nowak case after you brought Europe LE. Predictably, you are going to say that my stance was based on race the victim Nowak who was White, and his killer is a Sikh. Fine, I will use another example.———-quote
Nice try Kane but you caught yourself in another distorted lie. You only mentioned the case because you were like a drowning man grasping at straws trying to prove that Foreign Cops kill as many people as U.S. Cops which was a cherry picked lie of the greatest magnitude. When you compare an average of 1,500 people killed by U.S. Mad Dog Cops to Foreign Nations there is no comparison. As I said before Germany, Europe, and many other Foreign countries including China, South Korea, and Taiwan often shoot and kill in numbers you can count on “one hand” and that is consistent over the years not a cherry picked anomaly.
Your attempt to “deny” that we are not civilized in comparison to many Industrialized Foreign Nations is again nothing more than a pathetic attempted deflection of the horrific truth that the U.S. today is little different from Iran who guns down people in droves who we criticized several months ago while washing the daily blood and gore off of our own streets which both Cops and ICE Killer Storm Troopers are guilty of.
The Majority of detainees locked up by Jackbooted ICE Storm Troopers are starved and given rotten food and no medical treatment and treated like Nazi Concentration Camp inmates which is proof of Trumps bold face lies that they were only going after criminals because the majority of those imprisoned were “registered Aliens” waiting for legal and permanent asylum something you try consistently to sweep under the bed.
The mad dog Jack Booted ICE murders in Minneapolis, Minnesota shocked the Nation when ICE started blowing White Citizens brains out as all sane people were saying “Has Herr Drumpf and the Nazi Republicans all gone completely mad? “Papers Please or we blow your brains out’! When even the Far Right Fanatic Joe Rogan went into shock it proved that the situation is now completely out of control. This now Herr Drumpf’s 4th Reich.
Show me the difference between Hitlers Jackboots and Herr Drumpf’s ICE Jackboots. Hitler rounded up the Jews and Herr Drumpf rounded up “legally registered” Aliens. History repeats itself again. The Far Right of all time periods thrives on racism, bigotry, xenophobia, and murder.
When the mad dog Republicans tried to point the finger at Iran they had 3 fingers pointed right back at themselves. I excuse neither country for mass murder but unlike you I can see the truth.
You are out of your League Herr Hauptman Kane, quit making a complete fool of yourself because History is on my side.
To think that a fading 72-year-old took the time to write such a foolish statement is shocking. I understand the ideological difference between a Bolshevik (Lenin) and a Menshevik (Julius Martov) and falling out of the former comrades. Physical and verbal self-defense accompany similar principles, and you show no appreciation for the risks and consequences of either. It’s a wonder you have made it so long, never step out of the padded room in which you must be kept.
Just the fact that you brought up Ashli Babbit is proof that even you sense it was coming and that your undefendable positions are a result of your troubled mind that should not have access to even a pair of scissors. You have nothing worthwhile to say, you have no powers of persuasion, you are revolting and have learned nothing of note over the last 72 years. Baseless insults are your only expertise.
quote—————-Just the fact that you brought up Ashli Babbit is proof that even you sense it was coming———-quote
Of course I did mention Babbitt because you defended her many times before. Because you are a traitor to the Constitution and the American people you supported the violent take over of the Government by force which would have resulted in a Far Right Dictatorship under Herr Drumpf.
When Hitler tried to take over his Government by force in 1923 the German Cops turned the machine guns on them and they ran like rabbits. When Herr Drumpf tried to do the same thing on Jan 6th the U.S. Military should have done the same thing and mowed the traitors down and like Hitler Herr Drumpf should have been arrested and sent to prison and then tried for treason.
Herr Drumpf got himself booed big time yesterday when attending an event showing what the American people now think of him and his blunders. He tore up the Nuclear Arms treaty that Obama and Kerry had worked to hard to achieve and now he is forced to try and bring back that same deal he tore up.
Like Herr Drumpf you are a loser Kane. Instead of deporting hard working Immigrants they should deport you Kane because when you support Herr Drump you are a stain on America.
Kane,
You are cherry picking your data also. Keep in mind how many guns are in America per person versus the country you’re comparing them to. Keep in mind how many cities in case an entire state started letting their criminals back out on the street without any sentence whatsoever to show wrong doing. Keep in mind that the liberals really haven’t done anything that they bitch about the conservatives not doing and vice versa. Have an entire political system that fails its people so sorry Kane, shit rolls downhill.
Do you really want to live in a country where they take all of our guns or make them extremely difficult to get? Also look at the criminals in these inner cities. Cities run by liberals who do things such as ignore “petty crimes knowing it is statistically likely that criminals will escalate the natures of their crimes the more they seem to “get away with it“.
So what’s the solution? More free stuff, more prisons, more education, start a suburban ghetto?
I have no idea what you are talking about. What data am I supposedly cherry picking?
Just checked my e-mail, there was no notice of a response to any GA post I have written. I sure hope you did NOT attribute a toxic dacian post to me, that would be the worst insult possible.
Nowak, Talley, Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Babbit, Massey, Grayson I stand by everything I wrote.
well his mental health problems have been fixed!
Man you are really a sick Dude. If the man murdered would have been one of your relatives you would be singing a different tune.
That’s in assumption.
No its fact you idiot!!!!! If a person is sane the last thing they want is one of their relatives murdered and relatives include their children and wife. Is this all over your head Kane or have you been overdosing again!!!!
Why do you always have to be be so nasty? Typical demoncrat …🙄
Let’s imagine for a second that you were related to the Sheriff Deputy that killed Sonya Massey. Does that circumstance of having a relative under investigation have any bearing on how you feel the guilt or innocence of case should be determined? Tried to manage your anger better when you come up with an answer.
:^I
pink ammo goes in purple guns purple ammo don’t go in pink guns…..
He Never should have been out of a mental institution.
Make Asylums Great Again.
Paul…you are one dumb son-of-a-BITCH……Period.
and i’m sure your parents are a couple of nice guys!