LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Thousands of dollars in cash, drugs and guns were all stolen from the Simpsonville Police Department on Friday. Now neighbors are wondering about their own safety after the very people who protect the area are victimized themselves.

In a quiet little neighborhood in Simpsonville, the most noise comes from the laughter of children playing. Neighbors say they feel safe, but for some that security has been ripped away.

“Nothing ever happens like this here,” Betty Bohannon said. “It’s just a quiet little town.”

“It’s definitely something you don’t hear of too often,” Bruce Czako said. “Especially out in a community like this.”

That something they’re talking about is a break-in and robbery at the Simpsonville Police Department.

“It’s ironic, but it’s pretty bold for whoever did it,” Czako said.

“I didn’t believe it,” Bohannon said.

The police department was broken into early Friday around 1 a.m. Chief Chip Minnis says an unknown person or persons broke into the evidence lockers once inside the building. They stole approximately $30,000 in cash, an unknown quantity of drugs and handguns.

Neighbors say they moved into the area thinking it was a safe place to live, having a police department in their backyard.

“I felt safe,” sayd Bohannon, who now isn’t so sure. “They could have got us just as well as they did the police.”

Simpsonville Police are conducting a complete evidence audit, while Kentucky State Police are investigating the theft.

While one neighbor says drugs and crime are a problem in every community, another isn’t taking any chances.

“I came in from a small town in the country, and I’ve had my house broken into … So it happens,” Czako said.

“I’m gonna keep the doors locked,” Bohannon said.

But both are hoping for the same result.

“Hopefully they catch whoever did it,” Czako said.

Minnis said it was too early to tell if the missing evidence would hurt any pending cases.

Covered by WDRB.com

Officer Travis Richardson receiving an award for keeping unsafe drivers off the road

CRAB ORCHARD, Ky. — A police officer in Stanford, Kentucky was going 90 miles per hour in a 55 mile per hour zone when he struck a pedestrian with his vehicle on January 15. Following two weeks paid administrative leave, the officer returned to work and now faces no charges.

Abigail Whitehouse from Central Kentucky News reports:

Four months after the fatal pedestrian wreck, a KSP collision analysis acquired by the Interior Journal through an open records request, reveals Stanford officer Travis Richardson, 33, of Crab Orchard, was traveling 90 mph in a 55 mph zone when his issued 2008 Ford Crown Victoria struck and killed Howard Robbins, 69, of Crab Orchard.

Robbins, who was pronounced dead at Fort Logan Hospital in Stanford at 10:45 p.m., was walking across U.S. 150, just before Duvall Lane, when his body was hit and thrown to the south shoulder of the road, according to the reconstruction report.

Richardson was on his way to work in Stanford and a camera inside his cruiser captured the collision, which investigators used to reconstruct the scene and determine the high rate of speed at which he was traveling.

The camera, which Richardson “removed from the vehicle shortly after the collision,” also shows Robbins was “clearly in the east bound lane of traffic,” the report states.

Investigators said Richardson did not slam on the brakes immediately and although he did engage them, no marks were left on the roadway. A blood stain from Robbins’ body was found on the south shoulder about six feet from the road.

The Kentucky prosecuting attorney says he won’t be charging Richardson with a crime because he doesn’t consider what happened to be a crime:

“I just don’t think there’s enough there to charge him as a criminal. There was speed but there was no alcohol or drugs. I don’t think there’s enough there to convict him beyond a reasonable doubt of a criminal offense. Now there might be a civil offense.”

— Kentucky Prosecutor Eddie Montgomery

According to the Stanford Police Department Facebook page, Richardson was recently awarded with a plaque “for outstanding achievement in the apprehension of impaired drivers.” Richardson received the award for allegedly removing unsafe drivers from traffic approximately one month before killing Robbins by striking him with his patrol car at 90 miles per hour.

Officer Richardson’s Award

Last Sunday (May 10), police in Kentucky shot John Kennedy Fenwick after a car chase that ended in a deputy shooting the suspect during a fight. The sheriff for the county where the incident took place held a press conference Monday (May 11) and expressed what seemed to be relief that Fenwick wasn’t a Black person.

The bizarre press conference announcement started out normally enough with Bardstown Police Chief Rick McCubbin explaining the finer details of the situation that ended with the shooting of the 25-year-old Fenwick. Fenwick and a sheriff’s deputy fought at the end of a chase after cops caught up with the stolen truck Fenwick was driving. As Fenwick went for the deputy’s gun, he was then shot. Fenwick survived the shooting, but the chase left officers injured and cars damaged according to local reports.

Around 12 minutes into the conference, Nelson County Sheriff Ed Mattingly responded to a reporter’s question regarding any impending reaction from the community in this latest incident in where a police officer shot a suspect.

“We must take notice of previous cases and how the media has handled those situations. We want the public to be informed and accurately informed. We do not want trouble,” Mattingly said. “The media has not done a very good job of informing the public, and the public is not educated on how the system actually works.”

Mattingly added, “We are glad that he is white, and we shouldn’t have to be worried about that. And we do not want any backlash or violence in this community because people have been misinformed. I think that the public needs to know how the criminal justice system works and what officers are able to do.”

So basically, Mattingly is aware of the disproportionate rate of Black people killed by police when compared to whites and understands how the “backlash” he warned against happened. Yet, it appears Mattingly is putting the onus of the nationwide reactions and debate over police violence onto the media instead of the officers who the public entrusts to uphold the law and not gun people of color down. Does that add up for anyone else? Didn’t think so.

What’s apparent is he didn’t want a certain, ahem, element in his county if the shoe was ever on the other foot.

Watch Nelson County Sheriff Ed Mattingly embarrass his police department by actually declaring he was glad a suspect shot by one of his deputies was a white man. Start the video around the 12:30 mark.