LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — According to data from the city, Louisville’s numbers are trending in the right direction — homicides are down, non-fatal shootings are down and carjackings are down.
But for the more than 200 people who filled a violence prevention meeting Monday, many say it doesn’t feel that way.
One case still weighing on the community is the August shooting that killed 22-year-old Jermia Offutt in the parking lot of Three Brothers Market on West Broadway. Police say Deonize Lee Jr. pulled the trigger. Offutt was pregnant at the time.
“Now my grandbaby doesn’t have a mother because of this nonsense that's going on around her,” Offutt’s mother, Anquanette Davis, told WDRB News in August.
Monday, there are no physical reminders of the crime in that parking lot — but residents like Shelly Green said the memory, and the pain, remain. She believes the solutions to gun violence start closer to home.
“We’ve lost family values. Morals,” Green said. “That’s where a lot of this stuff starts — at home.”
The meeting was one of five organized by Metro Council members Tammy Hawkins and Ken Herndon in response to a string of deadly shootings earlier this summer.
Local business owner Jomar Bodie said he attended because he wants to be part of the solution.
“I’m from the community, from the neighborhood,” Bodie said. “Let me come out, help out, give my time.”
His approach is hands-on — teaching young people the skills and trades that helped him succeed.
“I learned everything I know from high school,” he said. “I’ve never been to college, but I watched my peers, learned from right and wrong, and went on the right path. Now I’ve got employees and we’re all doing great.”
For others, the focus was on encouragement and positivity. Karen McKnight brought her two children, hoping they’d hear “words of encouragement.”
And sometimes, those words came through song.
“Put the guns away for the children, there is a better day,” sang one performer. “Positivity is here to stay.”
Montez Halsell sang to a WDRB crews in the parking lot, he shared his story as a former convicted killer. He said he hopes his past can help prevent future violence.
“And the reason I’m in here — I’m an ex-convicted killer," Halsell said.
It’s a message he said young people need to hear — not from politicians, but from people who have lived it.
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