Desman LaDuke

Desman LaDuke, 22, was shot and killed by Nicholasville, Kentucky Police Officer Joseph Horton on October 22, 2022, after his aunt called 911 for a welfare check, fearing he was suicidal. Nine officers in tactical gear surrounded LaDuke's home with rifles drawn during a standoff; police say LaDuke brandished two firearms at a bedroom window and pointed them toward officers, prompting Horton to fire through the window from outside. LaDuke's family disputed the account, saying he was alone in his bedroom and that no officers ever entered the home as police initially suggested. A Jessamine County grand jury declined to indict Horton in August 2023, nearly a year after the shooting. No one has ever been charged in LaDuke's death.

Nicholasville, KY · Jessamine County

• 2022: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The welfare-check call, the standoff, and the shooting, per Kentucky State Police's investigative file, released body camera footage, and public statements from LaDuke's family.
• LaDuke's aunt called 911 at 10:40 a.m. to report he was suicidal and armed; his girlfriend had reported taking a gun away from him earlier before he retrieved a knife and then the gun again.
• Nicholasville's Special Response Team surrounded LaDuke's home with rifles pointed at doors and windows; LaDuke's aunt said she arrived at the scene and asked to be allowed inside to talk to him but was denied.
• Police said LaDuke “brandished two firearms while inside the residence in front of a bedroom window” and pointed them toward officers, prompting Officer Joseph Horton to fire through the window from his position outside; LaDuke was struck and died at a hospital that evening.
• LaDuke's family disputed the department's initial suggestion that officers had entered the home and were threatened at close range, stating in a public statement that he was alone in his bedroom the entire time and that officers never made entry before the shooting.
• A Jessamine County grand jury, presented evidence gathered by Kentucky State Police, declined to indict Horton on August 24, 2023, nearly ten months after the shooting.
• LaDuke's family and community members held repeated protests and public meetings afterward, specifically calling for reformed mental health crisis response policies rather than a tactical rifle response to a family's request for help, and filed a federal lawsuit alleging the Special Response Team handled the crisis “like a hostage rescue.”

• Whether LaDuke in fact pointed a firearm at officers through the window, as police maintained, or was alone and non-threatening as his family has stated, was never independently resolved at any criminal trial since the grand jury declined to indict.
• The specific content of the body camera footage and audio-recorded witness interviews in the full Kentucky State Police investigative file, beyond what has been publicly summarized, has not been comprehensively reported.
• Why the department's initial public account suggested a different set of circumstances than what the family has described has not been fully reconciled in available public reporting.

• Register-Herald (AP) — “Grand jury declines to indict officer in fatal Kentucky police shooting of armed Black man”
• LEX 18 — “A closer look at the fatal Nicholasville police shooting of Desman LaDuke”
• The Black Wall Street Times — “Kentucky Police Kill Desman LaDuke After Mental Wellness Check”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs