LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville’s west end lost an entrepreneur and community member, David McAtee, shortly after midnight Monday after a fatal shooting with Louisville Metro Police and the National Guard. 

What You Need To Know


  • Community mourns David McAtee

  • Family and community seek answers

  • Officers involved on administrative leave & police chief fired

Later in the day, 26th and Broadway looked like most nights of the week. 

“Eat, hang out, have food, people drink, drinking, smoking, I mean that’s what we do, but we aren’t hurting nobody,” said resident Juan Bell.

Bell lives nearby and says everyone was doing what they normally do.

“Just being black; being black. Sorry,” Bell exclaimed.

However, two things were different Monday night compared to most nights at the popular gathering spot. First, there was twice the amount of people.

“Because we are mourning now,” said Bell regarding the death of McAtee. 

Secondly, the gathering did not have McAtee smoking his normal barbecue for customers to eat at his business YaYa’s BBQ. 

The kitchen door of McAtee’s business is where McAtee, also known as YaYa or The Barbecue Man, was fatally struck by one bullet to the chest, which caused him to collapse in the kitchen. 

LMPD has confirmed that either the National Guard or an LMPD officer fired that shot. However, an investigation is underway to provide more answers overall about what took place Monday. 

Outside of the restaurant, family members gathered to comfort each other. The first night without YaYa.

“They came in here and killed my uncle for no reason. This is his place of business. A black king on a corner. On a corner! Running a business! Selling food! Being a good samaritan. He feeds all the cops. Take care of everybody. Everybody loves him,” McAtee’s niece Asley McAtee told Spectrum News 1. McAtee was well-known for feeding cops for free at YaYa’s BBQ. 

“Look at this! Everybody knows him. He doesn’t bother nobody. They did him like that. It was their wrong. He didn’t deserve that,” niece McAtee said.

She, McAtee’s whole family, and the community want justice.

“And we got’ get it. It stops today,” niece McAtee said. 

And to her, this is what it looks like.

“My granny needs to get the answers she has asked for,” said niece McAtee, referring to David McAtee's mother, Odessa Riley. 

“Give her her answers. When we get our answers, then that’s our peace. And we’re going to celebrate, and we’re not going to stop."

Bell remembers when McAtee started out with grills and an umbrella on the corner of 26th and Broadway to sell his barbecue. His current location is where he lived and ran his YaYa BBQ business. Family members said he was planning to build an actual restaurant next door in the vacant lot. 

“They done killed this man’s dream,” Bell said.

In a press conference Monday afternoon, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer (D) announced that the body cameras on officers involved with McAtee’s fatal shooting were not activated.

LMPD’s Chief of Police Steve Conrad was fired that day and replaced by acting Chief of Police Robert Schroeder. Schroeder said Monday those officers didn’t follow policy and there will be discipline. LMPD has confirmed it was either an LMPD officer or National Guard member that fired that fatal shot at McAtee.