Four people were arrested after an argument led to a fight during a preliminary hearing for a murder case Thursday in a Louisville courtroom.
Video from inside the courtroom showed the moments when the fight broke out.
Before the hearing for murder suspect 30 year-old Jalen Forrest began, Jefferson District Judge Yvette de la Guardia instructed the crowd to stay calm.
According to Col. Carl Yates, with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, as Louisville Metro Police Detective William Burns began answering the first question, a woman said something the judge deemed disrespectful.
After the woman shouted curses, she was dismissed from the courtroom. But the interruption didn’t end there. More people in the gallery began to curse and shout.
Forrest was escorted out as deputies forced people to leave the room.
More than a minute passes and screams can still be heard coming from outside as sheriff’s deputies scramble in the hall outside the courtroom.
Yates said those arguing were taken outside the courtroom. One woman threw a chair at a sheriff’s deputy, while another lunged at a sheriff’s deputy.
At least one deputy pepper-sprayed both women in the hallway outside the courtroom, according to Yates.
Yates said the brawl ended with four arrests, each charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
The hearing did eventually continue for Jalen Forrest, who was arrested and charged with murder on September 19 after police said he beat his stepfather to death.
Louisville Metro Police were called to an apartment in the 4500 block of Broadleaf Drive, near the intersection of Shanks Lane and Cane Run Road in the city’s St. Denis neighborhood, shortly before 4 p.m. September 18.
When they arrived on scene, police found Forrest alone in the apartment with the victim, his stepfather, who was suffering from multiple injuries. The victim, identified as 59 year-old Victor Anderson Sr., was pronounced dead. Court documents indicated he suffered “fractured ribs, broken jaw and manual strangulation.”
Forrest was returned to jail with a $250,000 bond after the hearing.
The four people arrested were Chanua Shackelford, Adrian Shackelford, Constance Russell, and Tekeya Anderson. They are scheduled for arraignment on October 3.
Source: WDRB
You must be logged in to post a comment.