Officers Sued in Fatal Shooting of Kentucky Man During a Mental Health Call
KNOTT COUNTY, KY – The estate of Travis Pratt filed a lawsuit in Knott County Circuit Court against two officers with the Kentucky State Police and Knott County Sheriff’s Office following a fatal police shooting. The lawsuit alleges violations of Pratt’s constitutional rights, conscious pain and suffering, emotional distress, and ultimately his death, with the estate seeking punitive damages.
On September 8th, 2024, Travis Pratt’s mother called Kentucky State Police reporting that her son was acting erratically, and she was concerned for his mental well-being. The following day, KSP received another call about Pratt allegedly standing on someone’s porch with a knife in Littcarr. The caller mistakenly reported that Pratt was actually wanted I-75 shooter Joseph Couch, and Pratt was not carrying a knife or other weapon. That caller chased Pratt off of his porch with a handgun and fired shots as Pratt entered the open door of a neighboring house to escape.
When Trooper Bruce Kelley and Deputy Wesley Bolen responded, they found Pratt inside the bathroom of a residence, displaying clear signs of mental impairment. While Kelley talked to Pratt through the door, another trooper familiar with Pratt advised on the channel that he knew Travis and requested to be patched through to try to talk to him and calm him down. This request was ignored.
Although Pratt was contained, Kelley escalated the situation by suddenly entering the bathroom under the mistaken belief that Pratt might have been trying to escape through a window. There was no window in the bathroom. After Kelley and Bolen failed to subdue Pratt with tasers and Pratt was writhing on the floor being tases, Pratt picked up a broken shower head from items on the floor and Bolen and Kelley opened fire and shot Pratt, killing him.
“This tragedy was completely preventable. Travis was in a contained mental health crisis, and the officers chose to turn it into a shooting,” said attorney David Barber of Thomas Law Offices, representing the estate. “They knew his condition, had the training and time to de-escalate, and instead escalated the situation, creating the danger they later used to justify deadly force.”
The lawsuit alleges that there was no indication Pratt was about to harm anyone at the time force was used, and that the confrontation could have been resolved through de-escalation rather than deadly force. The lawsuit claims that Trooper Kelley had received Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training designed to help officers manage and de-escalate encounters involving individuals in mental health crises but failed to follow that training with Pratt. After the incident, both Kelley and Bolen were placed on administrative leave while the Kentucky State Police Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) investigated.
A 2021 investigation by The Marshall Project found that Kentucky State Police fatally shot 41 people from 2015 to 2020, the highest total of any agency in the state. None of those shootings resulted in a trooper being prosecuted. Roughly one in four of those killed was not armed with a gun, and many were experiencing addiction or mental health crises.
The plaintiff is represented by David Barber and Nick Horne of Thomas Law Offices in Louisville, Kentucky.
