LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Nobody died early Saturday morning when someone opened fire inside Burger Boy in Old Louisville, but Lesley Vowels, an employee of the restaurant, said it's burned in her memory.
Around 3:30 a.m. Saturday, Vowels and her co-worker were injured after a fight broke out inside. The fight quickly escalated, and a bullet ricocheted, hitting Vowels in the leg.
"I didn't go into work that day thinking that I might not go home," Vowels said. "I didn't go into work thinking that I might not get to talk to my children. I didn't go into work thinking those things that day."
Vowels had only been working at the restaurant for three weeks. She said she has kidney disease, and only applied for the job after losing income from long-term disability.
Matthew Sanders, a spokesperson for Louisville Metro Police, said officers responded to Burger Boy in the 1400 block of South Brook Street. Police said a 50-year-old woman and 23-year-old man were both shot in the leg. They were taken separately to UofL Hospital and are expected to survive, police said.
Lesley Vowels. April 2, 2026. (WDRB Photo)
Some parts of that night are blank in Vowels' mind, but she said there are some things she still remembers.
"I was turned around and I was making a soda," she said. "And all of a sudden, there were two people at me and my coworkers' feet," she said. "... I just seen the gun. I didn't see him."
Then, Vowels faintly remembers trying to get away.
"When I went to run out the back door, I pushed the back door open (and) I fell again," she said. "I did not understand at this point why my leg was not working. But I kept falling. I fell out the back door and when I fell out the back door, I saw the shooter and he's just shooting 'Pop pop pop.' I looked directly to my left, and there was the shooter again within two feet of me and he is poppin."
Vowels said she can't recall if someone pulled her in or if she crawled back into the restaurant herself. Crackling sounds let her know she was back inside.
"You can hear the burgers sizzling," she said. "Finally, I raised up my leg ,and blood just starts pouring from the hole."
The pain had set in, but Vowels said she just thought she was hurt.
"The police entered and that's when he looked at my face, and I said 'I'm injured,'" she said. "And he said 'No ma'am, you've been shot."
Thankful for her life, Vowels also can't shake why the suspect's first response to a fight was to shoot.
"I pray for even the life of that young man," Vowels said, referencing the shooter. "It was instantaneous. There was no thought process behind it. It was impulsivity."
She said she wants others to think about the lives they're impacting before they act.
"That's not the only option," she said Thursday. "That's not the only alternative, especially when things escalate. And I pray that our youth will stop and realize the value of each other's lives."
Anyone with information in this or any other case is encouraged to call LMPD's anonymous Crime Tip Line at 502-574-LMPD (5673). Tips can also be submitted anonymously through the department's online Crime Tip Portal by clicking here.
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