Disturbing footage shows Kentucky police chucking slushies at pedestrians

Disturbing footage has emerged of Kentucky police chucking slushies as unsuspecting pedestrians in low-income neighborhoods, in scenes straight out of the show “Glee.”

Footage released by the Louisville Metro Police Department this week shows former officers Curtis Flynn, 40, and Bryan Wilson, 36, driving around in an unmarked vehicle in their uniforms and chucking large size slushies at people on the sidewalks.

In one video, the cops are seen cruising down Berry Boulevard in south Louisville when they spot a woman walking down the sidewalk in the rain.

As the car slows down, an officer could be seen asking the woman: “Hey baby, you got change for a dollar?”

Then, when the woman turned toward them, the cop yelled “How ‘bout a drink” as he tossed the contents of his cup at the woman. The two cops then sped away laughing.

Another video shows the officers approaching a different woman in the Park Hill neighborhood.

As they got closer, one of the cops could be heard saying “She going to get this motherf—er. She’s gonna get all of this” as he lifted the large beverage.

In at least one case, a victim was knocked to the ground by the assault.

Those were just some of the 24 unique incidents in which Flynn and Wilson chucked ice cold drinks at pedestrians between 2018 and 2019 and filmed their actions in a scandal that became known locally as “Slushygate,” according to the Louisville Courier Journal, which first obtained the footage from a Freedom of Information Act request.

The officers would then share the videos they took with their colleagues in group messages or show them during their breaks, the Journal reports.

Both Flynn and Wilson pleaded guilty to civil rights violations in the aftermath, and a federal judge called their actions “egregious, conscious [and] shocking” before sentencing Flynn to three months in prison and Wilson to 30 months behind bars, according to WDRB.

At least five other officers were temporarily suspended for their roles, such as helping to film or drive and failing to report the misconduct, but were allowed to keep their jobs.

Among them was Det. Joseph Howell, who received a 10-day suspension.

“I thought this is just some dumb prank stuff that specialty units do,” he told the Courier Journal. “And everybody seems to be OK with it.”

Flagging the misconduct would have been alleging his supervisors were not doing their job, he said, because “everyone knew about it.”

“If I would have went to the [commanding officer] at the time, I 100% would have been cut out of it. I would have been isolated without a doubt.”

But Sgt. Kevin Casper has denied knowing about the attacks and is appealing his 30-day suspension — despite writing in the group text where the videos were shared, “y’all need to use the slow mo feature,” according to the Journal.

Internal documents show at least three other Ninth Mobile officers were involved in that text thread but were not disciplined, the Journal reports.

All of the officers involved were part of an elite squad tasked with preventing drug and gun crime that eventually gained a reputation for police brutality and abusing authority, and was disbanded in 2019.

“The reputation was they were getting a lot of guns off the street. They were making a lot of arrests,” Deputy Chief Steve Healey told the Journal.

“You didn’t really hear about all of the other stuff until you would see the news reports come out, you would see the complaints come out.”

In fact, the civil rights charges against Flynn and Wilson only came as a result of the FBI investigating Wilson for a separate sextortion scheme, according to the Journal.

Mayor Craig Greenberg has since called the acts “unacceptable” and said he is “thankful each of the officers caught throwing drinks at people have been prosecuted by the Department of Justice.”

But he also noted that the incidents happened long before he or the current LMPD chief took office.

“We are focused on improving the culture of LMPD where we proactively work with [the] community, build trust with the community, and we want to have an LMPD that everyone trusts and respects,” he said, noting that the department has changed how it trains officers and has increased its emphasis on supervision, according to WHAS.

“Incidents like that will not be tolerated by Chief Gwinn-Villaroel or myself.”

In a statement, the Lousiville Metro Police Department also said, “It is understanding that the videos of the drink throwing incidents from 2018 – 2019 are upsetting and disturbing to the public. The incidents are a painful part of LMPD’s history.

“For context, the individuals responsible for throwing the drinks faced federal prosecution, and others that were involved are no longer employed by LMPD and/or have been disciplined,” it said.

“The department has implemented reforms that emphasize constitutional policing while rebuilding community trust.”