A Louisville man who was sent to the hospital with a broken nose and two black eyes says it all happened at the hands of two metro police officers.
But despite that, Johnathan Masters is the one who is now facing charges. It happened in early December of last year.
"So they're sitting right there in a plain white car and I'm crossing the street," Masters recalled. "They didn't have the blinkers on so they weren't going left, they weren't going right. I thought I could go ahead and cross, but as I'm crossing they do a donut right in the middle of the road."
Masters says it happened at 4th and M Streets in south Louisville.
"And when they did the donut in the middle of the road, they almost hit me. They almost clipped my legs, but I don't jump out of the way real fast and because I don't jump out of the way when they almost run into me, they shout, 'Get the f*** out of the road!'"
Maters says the officers were in plain clothes and an unmarked car and eventually confronted him. He also admits he threw the first punch.
"I was scared for myself, for my own physical person, so I swung, and I punched the guy," Masters said.
Maters says that's when the second officer got involved.
"He says, 'We're police,' and when they said they're police I'm like, 'Oh my God, like this is crazy that you guys are acting this way, but you say you're police.'"
Metro police won't talk about the case on camera because of a pending civil lawsuit; however, according to a police report, the detectives identified themselves as police right away.
"He takes his left hand and was like a cowboy punch from all the way up here and just went whack! And then busted my nose and just shattered my nose and I'm bleeding everywhere," Masters said.
Meanwhile, in addition to his medical issues, Masters is also facing several charges in connection with the incident. He appeared in court on Monday where a not guilty plea was entered. We noticed he was not wearing the nose cast then and questioned him about it.
"In court yesterday you didn't have that on and so why do you have it on today?," reporter Stephan Johnson asked.
"The surgery was right after court yesterday," Masters said. "Court was 9 a.m. and surgery was 1 p.m., is when I went to surgery."
Maters pleaded not guilty to resisting arrest, menacing, and disorderly conduct. His attorney has drafted a civil lawsuit and plans to file it sometime this week.