LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A man shot himself after a reported robbery led to a police chase that ended in a crash in Louisville’s California neighborhood, police said.
Louisville Metro Police officers were called around 5 p.m. to the 1000 block of West Broadway for reports of a robbery, LMPD Maj. Joseph Nett said.
According to dispatch audio, a caller said a pedestrian was hit by a vehicle in the area.
The audio indicates the caller said that afterward the driver “got out with a pistol, pistol whipped (the pedestrian), took his wallet and phone.”
Police were given a description of the vehicle and officers located it a short time later. The driver fled and led police on a chase that ended in a crash at Garland Avenue and South 22nd Street.
Nett said the suspect then barricaded himself inside the vehicle and shot himself.
According to dispatch audio, officers said there was “a child in the rear seat” of the car at the time of the incident.
A witness to the moments leading up to the shooting said he saw authorities pull the child out of the car.
“I heard the police tell him to drop it,” Juan Floyd said. “After that, it got kind of quiet, then all I seen is them pull a baby out of the car and that hit that pole pretty hard.”
The suspect was taken to UofL Hospital. His condition hasn’t been released.
LMPD’s Public Integrity Unit is investigating.
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