Martin Nitzken was naked and unarmed. An LMPD officer shot and killed him anyway.
– 4 min read
LMPD Chief of Police Paul Humphrey says Martin Nitzken was showing classic signs of a mental health crisis. Signs his officers are trained to recognize.
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A Louisville Metro Police officer is facing termination after body camera footage showed him fatally shooting a naked, unarmed man who was stumbling toward him on a Southwest Louisville street.
LMPD Chief Paul Humphrey announced Tuesday that he has begun the pre-termination process for Officer Nathan Stotts, saying plainly that what happened on May 30 on Cromarty Way did not meet department standards- and that it never should have ended the way it did.
"This is not what we teach, and it does not meet our values," Humphrey said at a news conference where LMPD released 911 call audio, radio dispatch recordings, aerial footage, and Stotts' own body camera video.
The man who was killed was 27-year-old Martin Nitzken.
What the 911 calls show
The night started with a 911 call from Nitzken's girlfriend, who told dispatchers he had become suddenly and violently agitated while the group was watching a basketball game together. She said he attacked her, then attacked her two female friends when they tried to intervene. All three women fled to a neighbor's house. All reported minor injuries.
But things escalated fast from there.
Before police arrived, Nitzken removed all of his clothes in the street, ripped a shutter off a nearby home, and chased a passing car with it. A neighbor- apparently trying to help calm the situation- got into a physical altercation with Nitzken and dislocated his shoulder in the process. At one point, callers on the 911 line can be heard describing Nitzken on all fours in the street, naked.
Neighbors describe Nitzken as walking toward police, and then you hear the gunshot.
911 call provided by LMPD
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Because of the level of danger, LMPD said EMS was held back and a behavioral health response was deemed inappropriate for the situation.
By the time Stotts pulled up, he was the only officer on scene.
What the body camera shows
Deputy Chief Emily McKinley, who walked reporters through the roughly 24-minute video presentation, described what the footage captures: Nitzken naked, stumbling, and unarmed, approaching Stotts. The officer fired once. Nitzken went down.
Stotts can be heard on the recording giving commands before the shot- "Stop. Stop walking towards me"- but Nitzken continued to approach. After the shot, Stotts radioed in: "One Baker, shots fired. I have one male down."
Humphrey did not mince words when asked what the officer should have done differently.
"We see officers every day that encounter extremely dangerous situations, and you don't see this," he said. "Sometimes we have to make decisions to take people's lives, and this was not one of them."
When pressed on what alternatives existed, Humphrey pointed specifically to less-lethal force- a Taser or similar intermediate option- saying he would have "liked to have seen something besides deadly force being used."
The termination process and what comes next
Pre-termination paperwork was served to Stotts on June 2, just three days after the shooting. Humphrey said he moved quickly and deliberately- after reviewing 911 calls, dispatch records, and the body camera footage- because when leadership knows what action needs to be taken, they should take it.
"I think it's important that the community knows that we're going to act on these types of decisions swiftly," he said.
Stotts, hired in February 2024, was assigned to the Sixth Division. This is still an active investigation, which limits what LMPD can say publicly right now.
The Public Integrity Unit is conducting a criminal investigation that will go to the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office. Kentucky State Police will conduct a peer review, and the Office of Inspector General will also review the case. Separately, LMPD's Professional Standards Unit is running its own administrative investigation.
Questions about mental health response
A reporter asked whether a mental health professional could have helped, noting that callers mentioned Nitzken was bipolar and had not previously been violent.
Humphrey acknowledged the call was initially dispatched as an assault run- not a mental health call- but said the department will be looking at how Metro Safe dispatched the run and whether mental health crisis indicators were recognized in the field.
Every LMPD officer receives 40 hours of crisis intervention training, he noted, including how to recognize signs of a mental health episode- things like being unclothed or unresponsive to commands. Humphrey said he expects investigators to examine why those signs may not have been acted on. He also indicated there may have been substances involved, though the toxicology report is still pending.
Chief Humphrey said he has reached out to Nitzken's family to express his condolences, though he has not yet spoken with them directly.
"I can't imagine that level of pain," he said. "My prayers continue to go out to the family of Martin Nitzken."
You can watch the body camera footage of the shooting here. Warning- it is graphic.
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