Married, off-duty officers thwart armed robbery attempt during dinner date

Justin Carter, 30, pulled a gun on an employee at the fast-food restaurant on Bardstown Road in... — Justin Carter, 30, pulled a gun on an employee at the fast-food restaurant on Bardstown Road in the Highlands on Saturday night, according to his arrest report.(WAVE 3 News)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Louisville Metro Police released video Tuesday of the moments after an armed man entered the Raising Cane’s restaurant on Bardstown Road and allegedly demanded cash from the register.

Police said that’s when two off-duty officers, a married couple enjoying a date night out, jumped into action.

When Elizabethtown Officers Nicole and Chase McKeown saw someone brandishing a gun at the other side of the restaurant, they said what happened next was instinct.

"That’s where that repetitiveness and that training kicks in,” Nicole said.

The McKeowns said their church has been stressing the importance of regular date nights.

“It’s actually, right after we got married, that’s where we ate dinner, at that same location,” Nicole said.

In the video, you can see the officers chase the would-be robber out of the restaurant. They eventually caught up with him and held him until LMPD officers arrived.

“We’re trained for those kinds of situations,” Nicole said. “And when it comes to those people’s lives being in danger, I feel like any other officer here would have done the exact same thing.”

“Our conversation leading up to it had nothing to do with whether or not we were going to do anything,” Chase added. “It was a matter of, this is happening, we’re trained to act, we acted. That’s all there was to it.”

Nicole and Chase have been married only about six months. They said this was a good exercise in teamwork.

“In marriage we’ve got each other,” Chase said. “We’re going to talk things out, we’re going to deal with whatever comes at us, we’ve had a lot we’ve dealt with in the last six months. It’s just another, like she said, another layer of trust that adds to and shows that I don’t have to worry about making sure she’s OK. She doesn’t have to worry about making sure I’m OK. We just take care of it.”

At the end of the video, you can see the gunman toss his weapon on the ground. Police arrested Justin Carter, who made his first court appearance Monday.