Bardstown giving officer second chance at career

Why would you? Anything he would say would be subject to being cut, smart thing to do is, KEEP QUIET. No one is celebrating Newby's death, they are happy that an officer survived an encounter with an armed subject.

Let's clarify. Michael Newby was a drug dealer. Not a veterinarian. He was a drug dealer. His step dad, same charges, his mom, well I'll be nice. Michael was armed with a .45 calibre gun at the time he was ROBBING Officer Mattingly. Newby tried to take(disarm) Officer Mattingly. These are multiple felony offenses that Newby was obviously going to continue committing. Deadly force can be uses in these circumstances per KY state law. Hence, that is why he was acquitted.

the difference is Officer Mattingly had a sworn duty to uphold the others were just thugs that got away with it.

I am a citizen of Louisville, KY. I am not a cop nor have I ever been a cop, and I find McKenzie Mattingly deserving of his new position. I think it's a good thing for the B'Town PD

1, I followed the case back in '03 very closely, read all the court transcripts, etc and so on. I didn't just rely on the media for an opinion or information. It's often very hollow. The suspect he shot was armed. Mattingly stated he was scared for his life because he felt said gun on the suspect. That's enough for me to justify his use of deadly force. I would feel the same about it if he were a cop, a doctor, a cashier at Kroger, or a farmer. If someone is in a physical struggle and feels or sees a gun and a real threat is presented, they are absolutely entitled to defend themselves in whatever way possible. Sometimes this means deadly force. Sometimes it doesn't. I don't think defending your own life means you are devaluing another, either. They devalued their own life when they put themselves in the position they did. And you can't really argue about him feeling a threat, because that is relative to each individual. What scares one person may not scare another

2, believing McKenzie Mattingly to be a hero is not endorsing homicide. Don't act like this is Hitler or Castro or Idi Amin. THEY did not value human life. Defending McKenzie's actions as a police officer is not glorifying death, either. Do you truly believe that? or are you too blinded by your disdain against the police? I believe there are a lot of evil, ugly human beings in the world. And it's inevitable some of them end up in generally admired professions... doctors, police, firefighters, soldiers, teachers... However, I don't think anyone here, nor McKenzie himself, has glorified or celebrated the death of Michael Newby. Sure, there's been a live by the sword die by the sword debate. I'm sorry if that offends you, but Michael Newby dealing crack to little kids offends me. So get over it. If McKenzie Mattingly could change having taken a human life, I believe he would without hesitation.

3, And no, I don't see him "ducking out" of the convenience store as cowardice. I saw it as taking the high road. You know why? I think he made that decision with consideration to A LOT of people. He likely considered he was in uniform and answering their questions would look unprofessional, and he probably also considered that Newby's family could see it, and that's not something they'd necessarily want thrust upon them by the media in this town hungry for salacious headlines. Afterall, Mattingly does want to "face the music" as you mentioned... only he wants to face the music to the only people deserving of his face to face conversation: Newby's parents. The community and the media and complete strangers aren't entitled to that. He doesn't owe me anything. I don't need to see him ambushed on the news. You have a self-righteous attitude saturating everything you post, and listen to you, declaring he needs to face the music and quit being a coward. Correction, McKenzie Mattingly owes YOU nothing. And what he does in his life to heal or find forgiveness or a moral path on his journey is between he and his God and no one else. Quit being so self-important. I know this may be hard for you to grasp, but the world doesn't revolve around you and the way you think everything should go. This isn't Burger King.

4, I hope most of you cops on here realize that citizens like COA are truly a dime a dozen and there are citizens like me with intellectual interest in facts instead of skewed opinions and societal bias.

So much mention here of people who have been acquitted that were "guilty"... If you want to be outraged about something, be outraged about the hundreds of cases the Innocence Project is constantly working on. They continue to free INNOCENT people wrongly convicted, some having been imprisoned for over 25 years for crimes they didn't commit.

Spoken like someone who lets others do their fighting for them. Come out from behind lock doors and walk in a real HERO shoes.

The jury ruled in Mattingly's favor because they were convinced Newby was a threat to society. He was an armed drug dealer and a robber, and that's all that mattered to them. However Mattingly never told the other 2 officer who approached Newby that he thought Newby was armed. He didn't even mention it when Newby fought them as they tried to handcuff him. You can fool some of the people all of the time and fool all of the people some of the time, but you're never going to fool everyone all of the time. Those inclined to have bad shootings in the future better hope they get an equally friendly jury and shoot a bad seed like Newby or else things will not go as well.

and then he turns around and backstabs Cubby. What a man.