LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Monday morning 53-year-old David McAtee was shot and killed by Louisville police. Police  say they were returning fire along with the National Guard.

In violation of policy, the officers were either not wearing body cameras or had not activated them. 

"In a very, very critical time in our community, where law enforcement is involved all over the community, that someone would violate policy this way is just unacceptable and hard to understand," said Rep. John Yarmuth, a Democrat.

The Louisville Congressman says the national demonstrations calling for police accountability after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia must lead to structural change.

"In far too many cases where police have abused power and primarily with Black targets, they have never been held accountable. We’ve got to get over that. We’ve got to start holding these people accountable," said Yarmuth.

"Anybody who doesn't think that is living in a dream world. What happened to George Floyd would never happen to me. What happened to Breonna Taylor would never happen to my wife. These things don't happen to white people. They just don't," he added.

According to the research group Mapping Police Violence, last year, more than 1,000 people were killed by police. Black people were disproportionately killed at 24% despite making up only about 13% of the population. 

While condemning those who seek to cause harm by destroying property, Yarmuth says it's important to note how the tenure of this uprising is different from the past.

"You wouldn’t normally get protests in Salt Lake City over the murder of a man in Minneapolis and I think what you are seeing is, a kind of resolution, the system is bad, the racial injustice in our law enforcement is a symptom of a much larger injustice and I think that’s part of what we are seeing in the streets right now."

The chair of the House Budget Committee says Congress should take up legislative solutions including Michigan Congressman Justin Amash's bill to end qualified immunity. Amash, a Libertarian-leaning Independent who broke from the Republican party last year, introduced legislation calling for strengthening the ability of citizens to sue police officers.

"Clearly that’s another level of accountability that I think would be important to restore to the system," said Yarmuth.