A Louisville Metro Police officer at the center of the fatal shooting of former West End barbecue stand owner David McAtee is facing federal charges in connection with the night of his death.

Katie Crews, who was among the LMPD officers and National Guard members who responded to a crowd that had gathered near McAtee’s barbecue stand in June 2020 amid protests over Breonna Taylor’s killing, is accused of depriving an individual referred to as M.M. of their constitutional rights “to be free from an unreasonable seizure, which includes the right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a law enforcement officer.”

Crews is accused of firing a pepper ball at M.M. while they were on private property and did not pose a threat to Crews or other officers who were on the scene. 

Potential penalties in the indictment, which was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court Western District of Kentucky, include 10 years of imprisonment, three years supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

M.M. is not named. But Machelle McAtee, David McAtee’s niece, previously told investigators Crews had injured her by shooting pepper balls at her on the night of the shooting. Crews later admitted to firing at her during the investigation.

David McAtee, 53, was shot and killed in the early hours of June 1, 2020, inside his West End eatery: YaYa’s BBQ stand on West Broadway. Several LMPD officers and National Guard members on the scene fired their weapons 

The night of the shooting, LMPD officers were operating in the department’s Emergency Operations Center downtown, a room with more than 30 screens where officers monitor live footage from cameras throughout the city.

The night’s protests downtown over the death of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman shot and killed by LMPD officers in March 2020 during a police raid at her apartment, had largely died down when Lt. Col. Joshua Judah decided to disperse a crowd out after curfew outside Dino’s Food Mart at 26th and Broadway, a popular site where people congregated in the West End, according to a report prepared the commonwealth’s attorney’s office.

During that effort, Crews shot the niece of McAtee at close range with pepper balls — a “less lethal” crowd control weapon.

After seeing his niece get hit, according to the investigation, McAtee fired his handgun and was killed moments later. Further investigations noted he was killed by a bullet fired by a National Guard member, though Crews was among the law enforcement officials who fired at him. No one was charged in his death.

This story will be updated.