Cousin of man sought by police shot to death
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, January 10, 2001
Louisville police shot and killed the 18-year-old driver of a van that belonged to the drivers cousin, a man accused of assaulting a female police officer over the weekend. The shooting occurred after the driver slammed the van into a detective. Clifford D. Lewis of Louisville died at the scene Tuesday afternoon of multiple gunshot wounds, said Carl Adams, a deputy coroner. Lewis was driving a van that belonged to his cousin, Aubrey Lamont Walker Sr., 26.Walker was wanted on a charge of first-degree assault after what police said was an unprovoked attack on Officer Lisa Doyle Saturday night. Walker turned himself in at his lawyers office about 3 1/2 hours after the shooting. The lawyer, Keith Kamenish, said Walker had been in the process of turning himself in through the court system before the shooting, but that this information probably had not reached police on the street. The shooting took place about 1:15 p.m. EST after police stopped the van. Detectives from the Street Crimes Unit attempted to arrest a suspect in a vehicle that they believed to be wanted, said Detective Bill Keeling, a police spokesman. The driver of the vehicle put the vehicle in reverse, pinning one officer against another vehicle. At that point, an officer fired at the driver of the vehicle. The van then crashed into the porch of a house. The name of the detective who had been pinned was not released. He suffered a broken foot, a spokeswoman at University of Louisville Hospital said. A pregnant female passenger in the van also was injured. Kim Turner, a spokeswoman for University Hospital, said the injured officer would be admitted overnight. The injured passenger also was to be admitted; Turner did not know the extent of her injuries. Shawmonica Bragg, 16, said the passenger was her sister, Lakeisha Bragg, 18, and said Lakeisha was Lewis longtime girlfriend. She said she doubts that Lewis was trying to hurt the detective, saying the wreck may have resulted because the power steering was bad on the van. Kamenish who represented Lewis along with attorney Scott Drabenstadt said the shooting appears to have been a case of mistaken identity. I think they thought that the van was owned by (Walker) and that the driver could be him, Kamenish said. What the individual police officer saw, I dont know. Maybe they thought it was him (or) they knew automatically it wasnt him but something happened. The attorneys had begun the process of docketing Walkers case so that he could appear in Jefferson District Court Wednesday morning, Kamenish said. But before we could get to court … this happened, he said. There is no system for letting the police know what was going on, Kamenish said. The police department didnt know, so they did their job, and thats to continue to look for someone thats suspected of a crime, Kamenish said. … If this would have been (Wednesday) at 9 a.m., it wouldnt have mattered. They probably wouldnt have stopped the kid or tried to stop him. Walker is accused of kicking Officer Doyle into the path of a car Saturday night. The car hit her and Walker fled, Keeling has said. Doyle was hospitalized with two fractured vertebrae, but her whereabouts and condition were not known Tuesday night. It was unclear how many officers were involved in the shooting and how many shots were fired. After releasing a short statement, police declined to answer any questions from reporters. Lewis was scheduled to go to trial in Jefferson District Court Wednesday for allegedly leaving the scene of an accident last November. Court records said he was accused of hitting a parked car shortly after midnight on Nov. 4, after he apparently observed the police. According to the records, Lewis then bailed and fled on foot leaving his passenger in the vehicle. Lewis was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and not having a drivers license. In 1998, Lewis was charged with murder, assault and criminal mischief stemming from a traffic incident that killed one woman and injured two men. Lewis was 16 a juvenile at the time, but he was indicted as an adult. According to court records, on May 16, 1998, he was accused of driving at high speed and running stop signs when he struck another vehicle, killing Angela Bivens and injuring Arthur Bivens and Greg Robinson. Lewis pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and two counts each of assault and criminal mischief. Last July he was sentenced to 90 days in a juvenile facility. Under the terms of his plea agreement he was sentenced as a juvenile, and 90 days was the maximum possible. The Rev. Louis Coleman, director of the Justice Resource Center, called last night for an independent investigation by the FBI, the U.S. attorneys office and the state attorney generals office. Coleman organized a vigil that attracted about 15 people to the scene of the shooting. He said he is concerned about the shooting because of previous incidents involving Louisville police.