Dustin Wayne South died in Louisville , Kentucky , on Wednesday after police were called to a field where South was seen wielding a gun . A 32-year-old man shot himself in the head during a firefight with police officers in Kentucky as horrified witnesses watched the chaotic scene unfold . Dustin Wayne South died Wednesday night at the Louisville scene , in a field behind Lassiter Middle School , a normally peaceful neighborhood in the southern part of the city . The shootout occurred after a neighbor saw South walking around the field while waving a gun in the air . Two bullets fired by police struck South , but neither was lethal , said Jo-Ann Farmer , chief deputy coroner . He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head . Cherylyan Rayhel said she watched from a window as South waved a gun and fired into the air just behind her house about 8pm , which is when she reported the situation to the police . Officers yelled three times for him to drop the gun , but instead he raised it and pointed it at them , she said . Gunfire erupted . She did not see the man turn the gun on himself . ' I saw him fall ; I screamed , ' Rayhel said Thursday morning . ' I have n't slept all night . ' The Louisville Metro Police Department identified the officers involved as Rondall Carpenter and Zachary Cooke . The officers have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation . This is the second fatal shoot involving Carpenter in less than a year . Last October , he and another officer , Skylar Graudick , were involved in a shooting that killed 38-year-old William Chad Mattingly , who had allegedly fired on the officers . Louisville Metro Police officers Rondall Carpenter ( left ) and Zachary Cooke ( right ) were involved in a shootout with South , but South eventually shot himself in the head . The shooting remains under review with the commonwealth 's attorney . On Wednesday night , Rayhel said she saw South fighting with a woman in the street in front of her house , just around the corner from South 's home . South , weeping , hugged a young boy who was with the couple and turned to leave , Rayhel said . The boy tried to chase him , but the woman held him back . Neighbors described South as friendly and sweet . Sherri Reynolds said she often saw him in the neighborhood , playing with a little boy . But she said he 'd recently seemed troubled . Last week , he went out for a drive 'to clear his emotions , ' he would later tell police . Before police arrived on scene , a neighbor said that she saw South fighting with a woman in the street in front of her house . He 'was unaware of his surroundings ' and careened his truck off Northwestern Parkway in Shawnee , according to court records . He slid down a hill into the Shawnee Golf Course . He tried to drive through the golf course to find an exit , but got stuck in the mud , damaging a green as he tried to drive free . South was cited for criminal mischief and scheduled to appear in court for arraignment later this month . In May 2014 , he was arrested on allegations of domestic assault . His wife told police he came home drunk , became aggressive and pushed her 14-year-old daughter out of his way . She got between them , she said , and he pushed her into a countertop . He pleaded guilty days later to the lesser charge of harassment with physical contact . He completed alcohol treatment and domestic violence programs , and the court set aside the conviction . Officers yelled at South to put down the gun when they arrived on scene , but instead he pointed it at them before turning it on himself . Rayhel , who just moved to the neighborhood , did not know South . After he walked away from the confrontation with the woman , he disappeared around her house , noticeably agitated , toward a field between her backyard and the middle school . Alone and frightened , she ran to her kitchen window that overlooks the field . She saw him wave a gun around and fire several times . It was close enough to rattle her windows , she said . She called 911 around 8pm and pleaded for help . Officers arrived minutes later , she said . Rayhel called her mother , still watching from her window as the officers closed in on South . They yelled for him to drop his gun . Shawn Jones , an eighth-grader , was with two friends behind the school when he heard the commotion and saw the man waving the handgun in the air . The man kept firing into the sky , he said . The officers yelled a second time for him to drop the gun , Rayhel said . She told her mother she was afraid they were going to kill him in her backyard . 'Baby , just look away , ' she recalls her mother telling her . The officers shouted for the man to drop his gun a third time and Rayhel looked back up as gunshots rang out and South slumped to the ground . The coroner on Thursday formally ruled his death a suicide . The incident , in which shots were fired by both the police and South , occurred outside a middle school at about 8pm on Wednesday .
Police were called after a neighbor spotted South running through a field behind a Louisville middle school while pointing a gun in the air . Police ordered South to shoot the gun down but instead he pointed it at them . After shots were fired by police , South shot himself in the head and escaped .