Houston HarwoodEvansville Courier & Press
EVANSVILLE — One day before the armed confrontation between Evansville police and Kyle Puckett turned deadly earlier this month, Puckett’s close friend said he dialed 911 to report that Puckett’s behavior had grown increasingly concerning and that Puckett could pose a threat to himself and others.
The 911 call was one of several attempts made by Puckett’s loved ones to have him committed for a mental health evaluation and treatment before Puckett armed himself and engaged in a standoff with Evansville Police Department officers outside his Lewis Avenue home on July 2.
Five officers ultimately fired on Puckett during the incident, which was captured on video by body-worn cameras and an aerial surveillance drone, according to the EPD. In the footage, Puckett could be seen at times pointing weapons toward a group of officers who had taken up a defensive position about 70 yards away from him along U.S. 41.
Several days after the shooting, EPD Sgt. Trudy Day told reporters that investigators had not determined if Puckett ever fired any of the weapons he had in his possession.
That Puckett owned firearms and could have been in an unstable mental state that would require treatment was known to law enforcement before the shooting, according to officials’ statements, court records and interviews.
Day said that in April, Puckett’s parents relayed their concerns, stating that Puckett owned weapons and that “he would have an armed confrontation if confronted by the police.”
“He has a history of concerning behavior,” Day said. “Out of respect for his parents, I don’t want to comment on that further, but it had been noted previously.”
By July 1, the day before the shooting, text messages Puckett sent to his friend of 15 years, Mark Katterhenry, included threats to harm himself and others, leading Katterhenry and Puckett’s family to search for help.
Katterhenry told the Courier & Press that he placed two 911 calls on July 1, at 5:30 p.m. and 5:46 p.m., to relay his concerns to law enforcement, a decision Katterhenry said he made after discussions with Puckett’s family.
“The first was to tell (dispatchers) my friend was texting me that he was going to hurt himself or other people,” Katterhenry said. “I later got more specific with his texts. I’d rather not discuss the details, but he did say that he wanted to kill other people. This was very out of sorts for him.”
Katterhenry, who spoke to the Courier & Press on behalf of Puckett’s family, said he met Puckett about 15 years ago through a mutual friend. Puckett had “always shown to be the kind of friend who was there when you needed him,” Katterhenry said. “He was genuine – no bulls--t – unless he was purposely making a joke.”
Katterhenry’s 911 call on July 1 led officers to perform a wellness check at Puckett’s home, but according to Day, Puckett told the officers to leave, which they did.
At a news conference on July 3, a reporter asked Day if there were additional steps officers could have taken despite Puckett’s demands that they leave his house, given the information available to law enforcement at that time.
“You have to look at it as if you made your neighbor mad, and your neighbor called and said, ‘Oh, he’s homicidal, he’s suicidal,’” Day said. “That doesn’t give me the right, thankfully, to just bust into your home and bring the SWAT team and take you for a (psychiatric evaluation) or hold.”
Katterhenry said a psychiatric evaluation was just what he and Puckett’s family hoped to secure, whether Puckett accepted the help willingly or not. When the 911 calls and welfare check didn’t lead to much in the way of accomplishing that aim, Katterhenry said he tried to contact EvansvilleWatch, a popular social media page that closely monitors and shares information gleaned from police radio traffic.
“They wouldn’t respond to me until the actual shooting started taking place,” Katterhenry said.
On July 2, Puckett’s family called a suicide hotline and considered reaching out to Southwestern Behavioral Healthcare Inc. to inquire about having Puckett committed under the auspices of a brief, involuntary psychiatric hold. Katterhenry said Puckett’s mother sought to reason with her son directly before taking such a step.
She “tried to plead with him to admit himself to Brentwood,” Katterhenry said, referring to an Evansville-based mental health treatment facility. “He declined.”
The help would never come. By the early evening of July 2, Puckett placed an erratic 911 call, telling dispatchers that he had knowledge of a “criminal operation” and that he would deal with the matter “himself” if the police did not.
Soon, officers arrived at Puckett’s home, at which point Puckett armed himself with a handgun and later a rifle, according to body camera footage.
“Mom and Dad had been driving by (Puckett’s) house, watching him close, and then all of the sudden they couldn’t get to him,” Katterhenry said. “The police had blocked everything off and the incident was fully underway.”
The incident ended in gunfire after Puckett, who is seen in drone footage seated on a set of stairs leading to his back door, reached toward what police said was a loaded handgun.
The EPD maintains that Puckett’s actions on July 2 dictated the course of events, whether law enforcement had known about Puckett’s mental state earlier or not.
“This was a rapidly evolving situation,” Day said. “He chose to point a loaded gun at our officers, so therefore, it took a different route. But that was his actions.”
Katterhenry said on Tuesday that he had not yet been interviewed by a detective about his conversations with Puckett in the days before the fatal confrontation.
“I myself will never call the police again for this,” Katterhenry said. “I will seek out other routes.”
Houston Harwood can be contacted at houston.harwood@courierpress.com
