Louisville PD Major Shot During Riots Gets Demoted For Using Offensive Language While Training New Recruits

Louisville, KY – A commander in the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department’s (LMPD) training unit was demoted for making “offensive statements” and using “offensive, derogatory language” while he was teaching a class of new recruits and is now under investigation.

LMPD Major Aubrey Gregory was one of two officers who were shot during the Breonna Taylor riots that broke out in September of 2020 after a grand jury refused to indict any of the officers on criminal charges for Taylor’s death.

Protests began in Louisville just moments after Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced that a Jefferson County grand jury had indicted only one of the three LMPD officers who were involved in the raid at Taylor’s home in March of 2020 that left her dead and an officer wounded.

On Sept. 23, 2020, Major Gregory and LMPD Officer Robinson Desroches were shot by a rioter who was later identified as 26-year-old Larynzo Johnson.

Major Gregory was shot in the hip and Officer Desroches was shot in the abdomen, the Courier Journal reported.

At the time of the shooting, Major Gregory was the special operations commander for LMPD and supervised the SWAT team, the bomb squad, and the civil defense unit that handles crowd control for the city.

He is a 22-year veteran of the Louisville police force.

When he returned to duty after he was wounded in the line of duty, Major Gregory took command of the department’s training division, the Courier Journal reported.

But then somebody complained about his offensive training rhetoric.

LMPD Spokesman Dwight Mitchell had previously said that Major Gregory was placed on administrative reassignment on May 21, the Courier Journal reported.

The police department has not commented on what offensive language was reportedly used by the training commander.

An internal police department memo obtained by the Courier Journal showed that Major Gregory had also been demoted to lieutenant, effective June 1.

The memo said LMPD Chief Erika Shields had signed off on the demotion and that Lt. Gregory had been reassigned to the 7th Division.

LMPD has not yet responded to an open records request about the demotion, the Courier Journal reported.

The investigation into the matter is being conducted by an outside entity and is considered ongoing.