THE INTERROGATION: STENGEL CHALLENGED MATTINGLY'S ACCOUNT

Grilled by prosecutors and police, Detective McKenzie Mattingly
insisted he had good reason to fear for his life when he fatally shot
19-year-old Michael Newby on Jan. 3.

But while interrogating the officer nearly four weeks after the
shooting, Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Stengel pointedly challenged
him, focusing on Mattingly's acknowledgement that he'd seen no gun on
Newby.

"Exactly what threat is posed by the back of an unarmed man?" Stengel
asked.

"I never saw Mr. Newby's back until he went down," Mattingly
said.

"What in your training directed you to shoot an unarmed man?" Stengel
asked, in one of many questions challenging Mattingly's account.

"I didn't feel he was unarmed," the detective answered.

"How can you be justified in using deadly force on speculation?"
Stengel demanded.

"The law ... says I am justified based on the facts as I believe them
to be at the time," Mattingly replied. "And the facts that are known
afterward are not relevant."

Mattingly was indicted March 5 on charges of murder and wanton
endangerment. His statement to Stengel was part of nearly 1,000 pages
of witness accounts and other documents filed by prosecutors yesterday
in Jefferson Circuit Court.

Mattingly told Stengel that he believed Newby was armed in part
because he had raised his shirt several times, suggesting he might
have had a weapon.

Police found a .45-caliber gun in Newby's waistband after the
shooting, but Mattingly acknowledged during questioning that he never
saw it. He also acknowledged that Newby was moving away when he fired,
according to a 45-page transcript of the interview.

Mattingly said he feared for his life in part because his service
weapon had discharged during a scuffle that preceded Newby's shooting,
and he thought he (Mattingly) had been hit in the foot.

But questioned by Stengel and police officials, Mattingly acknowledged
that he never indicated to another officer who was monitoring the
situation by a surveillance wire that the suspect had a gun.

He also said he never sounded the previously agreed code phrase for
danger — "Uncle Billy."

Mattingly also acknowledged that he violated policy and training by
getting out of his unmarked vehicle when the undercover drug buy went
sour. For safety reasons, he said, the officer making an undercover
buy is not supposed to participate in subsequent takedowns and
arrests. Elaborating on comments that he feared for his life,
Mattingly said he thought Newby's appearance and demeanor suggested he
was armed. The detective said that when he eventually announced he was
a police officer and tried to restrain Newby, "He just had this
stoned, cold like, sobering look in his eyes, like, 'I don't care.'"

Mattingly said he had received specialized training from the federal
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on how to identify suspects
with concealed weapons. Mattingly said he initially drew his weapon
after Newby came toward him, and that Newby jumped on his back and
grabbed the gun with both hands. Mattingly said he thought Newby
pulled the trigger.

"When it discharged, immediately something very hard hit me in the
foot," he said. "I thought he had just shot me in the foot with my
weapon."

Mattingly also said that Newby didn't race away when the gun went off.
"The actions he displayed were not those I've come to interpret as
someone in flight," Mattingly said.

He said Newby moved away "at a quick, clumsy walk. ... He was moving
along ... and he keeps looking down at his waist and pulling up his
shirt ... all the way to the point I started firing."

At one point during the interview, Stengel asked Mattingly what was
going through his mind when he fired the fatal shots.

"I was uh, literally scared to death that the subject was tryin' to
kill me," Mattingly said. "I didn't feel like ... I'd struck him my
first couple shots, so I continued to fire because he was still up"
and "turned toward me in a threat."

Mattingly acknowledged that he never tried to take cover, as officers
are trained to do. He also said that he stood still, rather than
moving as he fired, which he conceded also went against his training.

He said he never shouted "gun" or sounded the emergency code words to
officers listening with surveillance wires because "when you're in a
life-or-death situation and someone's tryin' to kill you, you can't
always remember to let your backup know what's going on."

Mattingly said he didn't draw and use his collapsible baton when Newby
initially moved toward him because he thought the suspect had a gun.

The officer also said he decided to shoot Newby because he posed a
threat to bystanders.

"Can you explain the logic of that?" Stengel asked.

"I mean, he had just tried to kill me" and "I believed he would have
been a very real threat to anybody else if he wasn't apprehended
without delay," Mattingly said.

"Anybody who?" Stengel asked.

"Any of the other officers, that, you know, were comin' up on to the
scene, or any other citizens there."

Mattingly, 31, joined the Jefferson County force in 1999 after working
as an officer on the Bardstown force.

The Jan. 3 shooting of Newby wasn't the first time Mattingly had shot
at a fleeing suspect.

Just a few months after joining the Bardstown department in 1996, he
fired a dozen shots at a truck driven by a man who sped away after
firing a shot from his vehicle, according to Nelson Circuit Court
records. Mattingly had pulled the man over after he was reported for
driving drunk and threatened others with a gun.

The man wasn't wounded and he eventually was convicted of attempted
manslaughter of Mattingly and another officer, as well as other
offenses, records show.