LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A man has been linked to a growing list of violent crimes in the Highlands.
The suspect's mom told WDRB that she's scared of her son.
Damien Pulce is currently incarcerated at Metro Corrections. While his victims seek justice, his mother Maxine Pulce shared her concerns for both the community and her son, who suffers from a mental disorder.
Maxine Pulce said her son comes from a loving home and had a very normal childhood.
"Two parent household. Both parents worked. My husband worked for Philip Morris, and I was a medical assistant," she said.
Maxine Pulce said when he was 19 he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
The mental health issues began more than 20 years ago, she said.
“I could write a book. I could literally write a book, because it’s been going on since he was 20 years old, and he’s now 43,” Maxine Pulce said.
Damien Pulce's most recent run-in with the law occurred Monday when police said he pulled a gun and fired one round into the floor inside a CVS on Bardstown Road.
Maxine Pulce expressed her fear over her son's access to firearms.
“The thing that scared me was that he has a gun. How? How do you get access to it?” she said.
Following his diagnosis, Damien Pulce was prescribed medication, but his mother said he refuses to take it.
“One of the issues is he doesn’t like to take the medicines because he said he doesn’t like the way they make him feel,” she said.
In April 2022, Damien Pulce attacked a woman in broad daylight outside her home on Douglass Boulevard. The woman, who goes by Vee and chose to remain anonymous, recounted the brutal assault.
“He started to just kick and kick and kick me about my torso, my ribs area. And I was hollering to stop, and hollering help,” Vee said.
Damien Pulce was eventually arrested and charged with attacking two women that day.
Vee, who has worked in the mental health field for more than 30 years, expressed concern about his ongoing legal troubles.
“The detective told me that he’s been to court several times, and what always happens with him is he’s deemed not competent to stand trial, and they release him,” she said.
She fears he will hurt someone again.
“He’s going to hurt people again, severely. He may end up killing someone,” Vee said.
Maxine Pulce also voiced concern about her son's mental state.
"With him hearing voices, you don’t know what those voices tell him,” she said.
Although Maxine Pulce lives in Georgia, she still maintains contact with her son, though she is deeply worried about his safety.
“The last conversation I had with him was a little over a week ago,” she said.
Damien Pulce is scheduled to appear in court again Wednesday as he faces charges in connection with shooting the gun inside the CVS.
“That’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t stay with me. It’s because it got to the point that I was scared, because I could wake up in the middle of the night and he would be standing over me,” she said.
Damien Pulce is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.
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