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Five individuals were injured in a shooting incident at a park in Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday night, according to authorities.
According to WLWT, officers reported to the scene at Waterfront Park near the Big Four Bridge, where three minors were found with gun-shot wounds and transported to the hospital. One of the victims sustained life threatening injuries.
In an official statement, the Louisville Police Department stated that two other victims had been transported to the hospital beforehand in a private vehicle. As of now, authorities have not disclosed the identities or ages of the victims, nor any information concerning the arrests or status of the perpetrators.
According to ABC, the city’s homicide unit will be handling the case.
What happened in the Louisville shooting?
According to Major Brian Kuriger, a spokesperson for the Louisville Police Department, law enforcement received reports of the shooting at 9:05 pm on Saturday. He claimed that the park where the incident occurred was a “family area”, but had been used for various “unsupervised… juveniles” as a spot to socialize in recent times.
According to Kuriger, the park is often crowded, but as of now he has not disclosed whether or not any witnesses are willing to discuss what happened.
He said:
“We know the park was filled with a lot of people. We’re asking for anybody that witnessed or observed anything to please give us a call.”
All five teen victims are currently being treated for gunshot wounds. While three teens were transported by authorities and paramedics, the last two arrived at the hospital later, where they were connected to the shooting.
Kuriger said:
“The victims included both males and females however ages are not readily available. Due to the severity of the injuries, LMPD’s Homicide unit is handling the investigation.”
Youth Violence in Louisville
According to Whas11, the Kentucky city has seen an alarming rise in violence among teens in the past few years. In an interview, Lamonte Garcie, an ex-convict and former juvenile delinquent, described some of the factors that drove teens like him into criminal lifestyles. He explained that it was primarily rooted in poverty and his experiences growing up in a lower-income neighbourhood.
He said:
“I didn’t have as much as everybody else had. So, I always felt like- out of place. Because that’s all I’ve witnessed- my whole life is jail and death.”
Elizabeth Brown Jones, an assistant Commonwealth attorney in Louisville, told reporters that she has seen how young children have recently been involved in more serious crimes than in the past.
She said:
“It used to be that it would be 17-year-olds, 16-year-olds who were being brought upstairs as youth offenders. But now- I mean they’re 14-year-old carjackers. Some of the murders- a lot of the murders have been juvenile-related, either victim or defendant.”
As per Louisville officer Lt. Donny Burbrink, he believes the spike in juvenile crime is due to the fact that the only youth detention center in the city closed down in 2019. Others blame the lack of community outreach programs, as well as the financial strain that was put on countless families during the pandemic, leading more young people to turn to crime for easy money.
