Days after the tragic incident that ended the life of Cuban doctor Yoel Roberto Nápoles Ravelo, 32, who was shot by police in Louisville, Kentucky, his family questioned the police response and revealed that he had called for help because he was experiencing a mental health episode; however, “they never helped him, they just shot him.”
On July 25th, around 9:30 p.m., officers from the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) responded to a call regarding issues in the 6600 block of Eagle Wood Drive, in a neighborhood in southwest Louisville. Nápoles Ravelo lived there with his family.
Interviewed by the TV station WDRB, affiliated with the Fox network, Joel Nápoles Gómez, the father of the young Cuban, recounted the last moments of his son before three police officers took his life in front of his family.
Nápoles' father recounted that, after waking up that day, his son "seemed nervous" and started to clean everything.
"We thought something was happening. All day long, he was focused on going in and out of the garage, going in and out of the house, going in and out of the car. Every time he did it, he was very nervous," the father said, assisted by an interpreter. He stated that they tried to calm him down as the afternoon went on, but the situation continued to worsen.
The young man grabbed his phones and tried to call 911. According to his family, he started making a lot of noise, so they offered him milk and a bath; but he kept going in and out.
"What we didn't want was for the police to arrive, because sometimes things can be taken out of context," said the father.
According to his testimony, a first police officer arrived at the house, and four or five minutes later, another one arrived.
While the young man's mother and sister went out the back door of the house to tell the officers that they needed help calming him down, the father stayed inside with him.
At that moment, he realized that his son had picked up a knife. "And I shouted at him: 'Yoel, what are you doing? You need to give it back.' So he proceeded to return the knife," he revealed.
According to the police report, the officers ordered him several times to drop the knife, but he refused to do so.
The family stated that the young man was not taking any medication, but was undergoing physical therapy after suffering a car accident in Miami. According to his relatives, he requested to go to the hospital.
They also revealed that Nápoles Ravelo had only had two previous episodes like this in the past, but never at the level he experienced on July 25.
"The police told me they were going to neutralize him," his mother Norgeris Ravelo Alarcón declared to WDRB. "They never helped him. They just shot him."
"They knew that what they had done was wrong," the father added. "They just had to neutralize him and not shoot him."
However, the interim chief of the LMPD, Paul Humphrey, told the press that the officers used Taser guns and rubber bullets to try to stop the young man when he approached them, but then they opened fire on him and killed him.
On the Monday of the previous week, the Louisville Police Department identified the three officers who shot at the Cuban as Matthew Forbes, Garret Schmeltz, and Kendrick Eaves, from the 3rd Division.
Nápoles Ravelo graduated from Medicine, with a gold medal, from the University of Medical Sciences in his hometown of Santiago de Cuba, in 2016. He then emigrated to the United States and became a citizen of that country five years ago. He had no criminal record.
"He was a very hardworking person in Kentucky after moving from New York," his father said.
The case is being investigated by the Public Integrity Unit of the LMPD, and the department is expected to make public the recordings from the officers' body cameras within 10 working days following the incident, which is the usual procedure when an officer is involved in a shooting.
Nápoles Ravelo was born on September 4, 1991, in the province of Santiago de Cuba.
"Yoel was a loving and devoted son, brother, and friend. He was an avid animal lover, had a heart of gold, and a smile that could light up a room. Yoel was very intelligent and dedicated several years of his life to serving others as a general physician in various countries, including Cuba, Venezuela, and Colombia. He graduated with honors from the medical university of Santiago de Cuba. Yoel had a strong faith and a deep love for God. He will always be remembered and deeply missed by all of us who had the honor of knowing him," reads the obituary published by his family.
The young Cuban is survived by his parents, sister, paternal grandmother, uncles, sister-in-law, and many other relatives, devastated by his death and the tragic circumstances in which it occurred.
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