[deanmine]

WATCH VIDEO BELOW

so. two men killed, later that day people gather to talk. family members get arguing and the wife of one killed is now shot n killed... crazy fuckin case

all infront of cops and media and filmed
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Moments before she was gunned down last May before a mass of onlookers and police in Louisville's West End, Makeba Lee cursed the crowd, telling them "payback's coming," according to recently released police interviews.

Lee had learned that her child's father had just been killed in a shootout at 32nd and Kentucky streets, less than a block from where she stood, and she was yelling at the crowd, even as a woman tried to cover her mouth and quiet her, Louisville Metro Police Officer Vadim Dale said in an interview with investigators hours after the May 17 shooting.

"I felt like it was her against the crowd," Dale said of Lee, adding that the woman trying to quiet her had a look like, "You don't wanna do that right here, right now."

Dale said he was moving toward the growing melee when he saw another woman, Cheetara Goldsmith, pull out a gun and shoot Lee, then stand over top of her as she fired several more times from point-blank range. Goldsmith is now charged with murder in Lee's shooting, which rocked the city because of the brazen violence in front of dozens of witnesses and officers.

"I noticed she looked as though she acknowledged that I was coming, but she just kept screaming and shooting," Dale said in his interview with Sgt. Pete McCartney of the Louisville Metro Police Public Integrity Unit, part of hundreds of pages of documents, pictures and audio interviews. "... Screaming obscenities at the victim on the ground. ... It looked like a flat-out execution to me."

Dale said he screamed for Goldsmith to drop the gun but she continued shooting, prompting him to fire one shot in an attempt to save Lee. Goldsmith ended up facing Dale, pointing her weapon toward him and he fired two more rounds, hitting her and causing her to drop the gun and fall to the ground, according to his interview.

The records filed Wednesday shed more light on the details of what happened on that chaotic day May 17, when shots rang out in the middle of a murder investigation, while dozens of police officers worked the case amid crowds of neighbors, family and media members pressing close.

In all, three people were shot to death and three others wounded, horrifying neighbors and leaving city officials vowing to curtail the mayhem.

Tyson Mimms, 24, the father of Lee's child, and Craig "C.J." Bland Jr., 22, died in the initial shootout. Lee, 24, of the 500 block of Breckinridge Street, died not long after at the scene of multiple gunshot wounds.

Goldsmith, being held in the Jefferson County jail on a $500,000 bond, has pleaded not guilty to murder and one count of first-degree wanton endangerment.

An officer at the scene said he heard people say Goldsmith was Bland's girlfriend.

"So I guess, you know, the boyfriends were quarreling, so then the girlfriends started quarreling as well," Officer Josh McKinley told investigators shortly after the shooting.

Two witnesses, who are not identified, said they saw the two people, Lee and her friend, make a comment to a group of six people, including Goldsmith, that Mimms would not have been killed if he "had not been with the other deceased individual," insinuating, the witnesses believe, that Mimms was a good person, while Bland was an "undesirable."

"This caused a violent reaction from the group of six individuals," according to a summary of the interviews. A boy in the group came forward and spit on Lee, according to the records.

Right after that, the shooting began, they said.

Alicia Smiley, a spokeswoman with the Louisville Metro Police Department, said police are still investigating the shootings of Mimms and Bland.

The violence began at 1:10 p.m., when 911 dispatchers got a call that there were three people shot at 32nd and Kentucky streets. Within moments, another call alerted them of a man shot at Elliott Avenue and 26th Street, according to MetroSafe Communications.

Police responding to 32nd Street found Mimms dead on the sidewalk and Bland on the front porch of a nearby home.

A witness to the Goldsmith shooting, Lamon Dawson, an Indiana resident, said he believed that Goldsmith was starting to run away when police shot her, but said the officers had justification to use deadly force.

Another witness, Marriesta Price, told investigators that Goldsmith started to flee after shooting Lee but "she couldn't, cause the minute she went to take off, it seemed like when she got hit the first time."

The two witnesses who spoke to police but did not want to be identified, said Goldsmith started to walk away but stopped when the officer told her to halt.

"The witnesses report that the girl did not drop the gun, instead turned toward the officer who then fired," according to the police summary. "... The witnesses reported that the officer had no choice and that he and other officers immediately secured her and proceeded to perform CPR on the deceased victim and also" treated Goldsmith.

Smiley said Dale, who had been on administrative duty, has returned to active duty. The shooting is still under internal investigation.

The Commonwealth's Attorney's Office reviewed the case and found no criminal wrongdoing by Dale.
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One year ago Friday was a deadly day of violence in Louisville that left three people dead and another three injured in two separate, but related shootings. The violence stunned the area, awakening many to a growing, brazen violence on Louisville’s streets.

In the wake of the violence, police have spent countless hours investigating the initial shootout that triggered the events that fateful day. There have been no arrests in that crucial case.

The former head of Louisville’s Homicide Unit, Maj. Barry Wilkerson spoke exclusively to WLKY investigative reporter Duane Pohlman, telling him police still don’t have all the information that will help them crack the high profile case.

Surreal

Even for hardened detectives, the execution-style murder of Makeba Lee, a 24-year-old mother and girlfriend of the man gunned down just hours before and a block away, sounded the alarm about how brazen the violence had become on Louisville’s west side.

"That day was very surreal in the fact that you would have another shooting while you had multiple crime scene tape and actual police officers on scene for that to happen," recalled Wilkerson, who led Louisville Metro Police Department’s Homicide Unit, until his promotion this year.

While that shooting on May 17, 2012, in front of police and news cameras, captured national attention, it was the original shootout, the one police had responded to at 32nd and Kentucky streets, that remains in focus for detectives still trying to crack the case.

Lee's boyfriend, 24-year-old Tyson Mimms, and Craig Bland, Jr. were killed in the initial shooting.

Two other men, whom police haven't identified, were shot but survived.

No one has been arrested and charged.

Complex case

When asked why police still have not made an arrest after a year of investigating, Wilkerson gave an answer that has been uttered by police for many months.

"I think you would have to look at the total aspect of that whole case and again, the complexity of that case," he stated, avoiding the details of the still-active investigation.

But, in further questions, Wilkerson confirmed that the emotion and violence of the day was preceded by a running feud that had festered for years.

In 2009, Mimms was arrested and charged with the murder of Alfred "Junie" Smith, who was killed in the same area where Mimms was killed. The murder charge against Mimms was dismissed.

Wilkerson confirmed the bad blood directed at Mimms may have played a role in the shootout.

"That's a situation we have to look at," he said, "but we don't want to get too focused on one issue."

More people than on paper

Part of the difficulty of cracking this case, Wilkerson explained, is the fact that police still haven’t identified everyone who may have been in or near the crowd gathered when the shootout occurred.

Police confirmed that crowd included more than the victims, as originally believed.

"I would say there were more people involved than what we have on paper," Wilkerson said.

He avoided a key question about whether there are potentially more shooters involved.

"Not going there," his answer.

The reason Wilkerson won’t go there is sensitivity of the investigation itself in a case that is the highest of profile.

But, Wilkerson conceded, after a year of investigating, detectives are still left with some unanswered questions.

"There may be more people involved. We're not sure. It's a very complex case. And that's where we need to sort through and figure out how they were involved and what actually took place from the witnesses that come forward," Wilkerson said, still appealing for information from witnesses that still have not come forward.

"Oh, without question, there are more people that have more information that we need," he said.

The appeal for more information doesn’t mean police haven’t put together a good picture of the shootout. While guarding much of the information, Wilkerson made it clear that witnesses and forensics have already helped police determine what happened that day.

Shaping the picture

At this point, the lengthy investigation and lack of charges center on a couple of missing clues that would help solidify the case.

"More information to shape the picture we already have," Wilkerson said.

That key information will not only crack the case, but, according to Wilkerson, it will help police hand over a case where the charges stick.

"It's easy to make an arrest," Wilkerson said, adding, "I want to make sure we get a conviction on this case."

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