LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Homicide detectives are investigating after a man was gunned down in the city's west end Monday night. Witnesses described hearing a single gunshot and then stumbling across the victim's body.
The Jefferson County Coroner's Office identifies the man as 60-year-old Larry Macklin. He was pronounced dead at the scene of a single gunshot wound at 10:28 p.m. Monday.
Police say the shooting happened just before 9 p.m. on August 13 near the intersection of 23rd Street and St. Louis Ave. Neighbors say Macklin may have been on his way home from work when he was shot.
So far police have no suspects and no description of possible suspects. A neighbor who did not want to be identified said, "He wasn't the type of person to go around here and start trouble with nobody."
Nearby residents told us they heard a gunshot, didn't react because they have become so accustomed to hearing that sound in the neighborhood. As the neighbor put it, "I just don't understand how could somebody just kill an innocent person."
She says she's too scared to show her face or give her name, and she's not alone. Almost every neighbor near the shooting scene at 23rd and St. Louis Street says they are too afraid to talk about the murder because the killer is still on the loose. The neighbor said, "I feel like whoever you are, you need to turn yourself in, cause you just killed an innocent person."
That innocent person was known to many people in the neighborhood as "Larry the Lawnmower Man." Neighbors say he would walk around the area pushing his lawnmower asking to mow grass to make money. "Nice guy, nice guy," the neighbor said. "He cut my grass for about four or five months."
Another witness, who identified himself only as "Dre," told WDRB News that "there was kids on the block. They're running, playing and we heard a pop. We're so used to hearing it in the west end that didn't nobody think nothing of it."
Dre says he and a friend later stumbled across the body in an alley.
"I thought he was just laying there," Dre said. "We heard one shot."
Anyone with information is asked to call the anonymous LMPD crime tipline at 502-574-LMPD (574-5673).
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The Victim: Larry J. Macklin (Source: Louisville Metro Corrections)
