Covington Police Officer Grant Satterfield is back on duty after paid administrative leave during an investigation after firing his weapon during a foot chase late Tuesday night.
According to CPD Detective Daniel Seals, the administrative leave was simply a formality which is done whenever an officer must use force that involves his or her service weapon.
"He did his job as far as we're concerned," Seals said.
According to reports, officers were working speed detection on Brown Bridge Road and Tara Drive at around 10:45 p.m. Aug. 19 when they heard a vehicle, playing loud music, coming from the east. As the vehicle went past the patrol car, the music was silenced but not before officers were able to detect that it came from the 1990 Honda Accord, reportedly driven by 29-year-old Earnest Corbett III. Officers pulled their patrol car behind Corbett’s vehicle and attempted a traffic stop.
The vehicle was pulled into the parking lot of a church and appeared to be stopping, but then it was eased forward into a parking lot, then the driver drove the car toward the front entrance of the church, made a left hand turn and appeared to be heading back out onto Brown Bridge Road, but before exiting the church parking lot, came to a complete stop.
Corbett apparently opened his door about an inch and as the officers stopped their patrol cars and begin to exit, Corbett reportedly ignored commands to close his door, and instead opened his door and exited the vehicle. When an officer got about 20-feet away, Corbett allegedly turned his back to the officers and refused to comply with commands.
He reportedly placed his hands on top of the vehicle for about a second, then pushed himself off and began to run toward Brown Bridge Road. The officers began chasing Corbett on foot and reportedly watched as Corbett paused long enough to take his shoes off before continuing to run away from them. After about a quarter of a mile, another officer was able to cut Corbett off by coming at around Turner Lake Road in his patrol car, and began chasing him through the woods in that area.
One officer reported that he could hear the other officer in the woods giving Corbett commands to stop and get on the ground. As he approached the pathway to the woods that Corbett and the other officer had taken he reportedly heard a shot fired from inside the woods.
When the officer came upon Corbett and the other CPD officer, he saw that Corbett was reportedly on the ground face down, but that he had his hands tucked underneath him in the area of his waist, according to reports. Continued verbal commands to remove his hands were allegedly ignored and officers had to grab his arms to place him in handcuffs.
Corbett reportedly attempted to pull away from the officers and struggled with them before finally being placed in handcuffs.
The investigation found that Corbett had taken off his shoes and was holding one in his hand. Being dark outside, Officer Satterfield could only see a dark object in Corbett's hands as he approached and refused to stop, so he fired his weapon believing himself to be in danger. Neither man was injured.
While searching Corbett, officers located $1,520 in counterfeit $20's and $50's and dispatch informed them that his license was suspended as well.
Corbett has been charged with noise violation, fleeing to elude, obstruction, driving without a license and forgery in the second degree. A check of his vehicle allegedly located trace amounts of marijuana residue in the car’s console.
