Report: KSP trooper shoots bullet into neighbor’s apartment

LA GRANGE, Ky. (WAVE) - A bullet fired into an apartment on Fredrick Lane came from the state trooper living upstairs, police said.

Oldham County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to an apartment in the 1000 block of Fredrick Lane in the Oldham Oaks complex Saturday evening.

According to the police report, the 911 caller reported the shot was fired into the ceiling of his apartment just feet from where his daughter was sitting. No one was injured.

“I was like covering up my head because I didn’t know what was happening, and then I looked up and I saw smoke coming from that (the bullet hole),” said 11-year-old Kay’leah Todd.

Kay’leah’s two younger siblings, 8-year-old sister Sa’rinity and 2-year-old brother Ke’liam, and their grandmother, Beverly Todd, were also nearby when it happened.

When deputies arrived, they spoke with the victim’s upstairs neighbors: Trooper Landon Terry and Trooper Dustin Gross. Both stated they were in the field-training phase of their training with KSP.

According to the report, Terry told the deputies the shot was not intentional. Terry said he and Gross thought the rifle was empty, someone pulled the trigger, and the rifle went off because there was a round in the chamber.

He also stated they were just moving into the apartment.

“The most frustrating part about all of this is that they did not come check on us,” said mother KeeKee Todd. “They knew what happened and they did not come."

The report goes on to say Terry and Gross told deputies they had not contacted their supervisor. When the deputy told them they should get out in front of it and let their supervisor know what happened, their response was “we are getting ready to go out.”

The deputy wrote in the report that neither of them acted like they were going to contact their supervisor.

The report stated the deputy contacted the on-duty supervisor of KSP Post 5, who told the deputy their department would handle the investigation.

KSP spokesman Sgt. Josh Lawson confirmed the case is under an administrative investigation, adding that the troopers aren’t working while it’s under review.

He said one of the main focuses of the investigation is the troopers' response or lack thereof.

"The human in you, just being a human being, should have at least come down here to say are the people down there okay,” KeeKee said.

After the administrative investigation, KSP will work with Oldham County Sheriff’s Department to determine if it should be invested criminally.

Lawson also said the gun used was not a service weapon; it was a personal rifle belonging to one of the troopers. He said it appears to have been an accident.

Terry and Gross are new to KSP Post 5, they just graduated from the academy three weeks ago.

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