As a local television news crew was reporting live on the unfolding protests, they were directly fired upon by Louisville, Kentucky, police with what the reporter described as pepper bullets. “I'm getting shot!” WAVE 3 reporter Kaitlin Rust can be heard saying afterward as she fled the area where she was doing a live shot in downtown Louisville. When an anchor at the studio asked if she was safe, Rust answered that she was OK and that had been hit with pepper or rubber bullets. “I guess we were behind their line, I guess a little too close for comfort,” Rust said.

A spokeswoman for Louisville Metro Police apologized for the incident on Friday evening, telling the Courier-Journal it is not the department's intention “to target or subject the media as they try to cover this.” “It's not something that should have occurred if she was singled out as a reporter, and that is what the video looks like occurred,” the spokesperson said.

On Thursday, seven people were shot and two officers were hospitalized after a protest for action to be taken against three officers involved in the March death of EMT worker Breonna Taylor. Taylor was shot in her home during a no-knock warrant that was being served at her home—but meant for another residence across town.