LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jazmine Melton has lived and worked in the Highlands neighborhood for much of her life.
"As an artist and a musician, it was the hub of art and music for me," Melton said.
She had just gotten off work as a bartender at Agave & Rye and was almost home when she witnessed a 2 a.m. fatal shooting on Baxter Avenue on July 4.
"I was right next to him,” she said. “It was honestly terrifying."
Shooting deaths are on track to be the deadliest in Louisville this year. The Highlands have seen three shootings in less than 2 months.
"What people are really most concerned about is that hyper local level of what they're seeing in their neighborhoods, and they really want to know that someone is working on it and how they are working on it," said Louisville Metro Councilwoman Cassie Chambers Armstrong (D8), who represents the highlands.
She hopes she has the solution and that her draft of a 'Bardstown Road Report’ will be able to work as a base to the high crime rate.
"We've broken it out in categories from how do we deal with speeding and people running red lights to how do we deal with the rise in shootings," she said while calling on the community for input.
"On each page of the report it has questions for feedback, and it says, you know, for speeding were thinking about things like changing the state law to let us use red light cameras and noise cameras and other types of traffic cameras,” she said. “What do you think about that?"
The intersection of Highland Avenue and Baxter Avenue.
Bar owners in the Highlands are split about that proposal.
"We don't have those issues here at our business," said owner of Chill Bar Highglands Rowdy Whitworth.
"It definitely couldn't hurt in the respect of curbing the uptick in crime," said Gerstle's owner Eric White.
Work is being done right now, according to the Bardstown Road Report. LMPD has increased the number of officers along the corridor on Fridays and Saturdays.
"I hope that it recovers from whatever is happening," said Melton who wants the Highlands to return to its normal state of uniqueness and not violence.
The draft report will be updated with additional plans and information following a community meeting on Aug. 24.
The meeting will be at the Highlands-Shelby Park Library at 6 p.m.
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