Paralyzed by gang violence, Louisville man now uses his story to mentor the next generation

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- When Kaelin Hall joined a gang in Louisville, he said he was looking for love.

"I grew up in the projects so I was surrounded by a lot of the trauma, a lot of the things that was going on in the community still today," he said. "And at some point, I joined into it myself."

Hall said he was an athlete with one foot in and one foot out. But the streets ended up taking a toll.

"It didn't take long to realize that the love wasn't there, but, for some reason, I kept showing up," Hall said Thursday. "I kept showing back up to the streets. I didn't know my true worth."

Eventually, he was shot but said that wasn't the wakeup call he needed. It was the second shooting in March 2016 that left him paralyzed, along with the loss of his mother a year later, that woke him up.

"... I've done enough damage," he said, remembering that time. "Now, I need to clean up what I've messed up."

Years later, Hall is now a former gang member who tries to stop Louisville teenagers from living the life that nearly killed him. He uses his story and mentorship to reach the next generation.

"I just really want to serve the community," he said.

Hall said he surrounds himself with different people these days, people who hold him accountable and "intentionally try to help me and be there for me."

He said the streets only promise broken hearts.

"The streets don't love nobody. They never have and they never will," Hall said. "... The things that might not seem cool, the things that you don't want to necessarily do at this moment, those are the things that are really going to save your life and get your paid."

Hall said his heart breaks every time he hears of another shooting, a reminder of the life he barely survived and, as a result, the new one he was given.

"Every time it happens, I get survivor's guilt," he said. "But I know why God kept me. For a while, I just kept asking 'What was so special about me?'"

'There is no other option'

Col. Paul Humphrey, acting chief of the Louisville Metro Police Department, told state lawmakers Tuesday in Frankfort that gangs remain a real problem in the city, but it's different than year's past. Humphrey joined Mayor Craig Greenberg on Tuesday morning testifying before the Interim Joint Committee on Local Government about the challenges and successes city leaders face.

"The gang situation is a legitimate concern for us," Humphrey said in an interview with WDRB News Tuesday back in Louisville after his testimony. "It's not something we're ignoring. It's not something we're trying to hide. It's something that's known."

The year-to-date numbers of homicides in Louisville — courtesy of LMPD's Gun Violence Dashboard — from the last five years are below:

2024: 78
2023: 75
2022: 75
2021: 87
2020: 52

In June 2023, Greenberg said Louisville "definitely" has a gang problem, adding that about 30% of the city's homicides are gang-related. Humphrey said Tuesday that gangs have evolved in Louisville, that there are now numerous groups that are much smaller. In fact, people can be involved with more than one at a time, he said.

"It's not about specifically saying it's this neighborhood or that neighborhood," Humphrey said. "There are people who are in gangs who don't live in even the same parts of town but they happen to run in the same crew. So, like I said, the notion of the traditional, blue vs. red, that's gone out the window."

He said parents in Louisville need to know what's going on.

"The fact of the matter is, they know exactly what's going on inside their home and they need to understand that if they don't intervene with their kids, their brother, their sister, whoever it is, eventually, the (opposition is) going to get them or we're going to get them," Humphrey said. "And you're either going to be going to a funeral or you're going to be going to somebody's court date. And there is no other option unless the person stops their behavior."

Humphrey said the gang situation is a much different type of problem than it was before. He said strategies to combat crime continue to evolve.

"We have units, particularly in CID — our Criminal Interdiction Division — that focuses on that type of violence and those types of groups," he said. "And every day, they're putting together investigations and gathering intelligence on these groups so they can make sure that they dismantle them and target those individuals that are the source of the majority of our crime."

'We can make a change'

Khalid Raheem works with the city's Pivot to Peace program, showing up at crime scenes to help families in crisis. The hospital-based program allows families to "identify and address the factors in their lives that have put them at risk for violence," the city says.

"In the absence of love and compassion, there's a presence of drugs and alcohol and confusion," Raheem said Thursday. "If we change the condition that's created the condition that we're in, then we can make a change."

And the grief is personal too. In the last few years, he's lost two teenage family members to separate, fatal shootings in the city. His 15-year-old grandson and 16-year-old niece were both victims of Louisville's gun violence, and both cases remain unsolved.

"There's no one, magic pill. We all have to come together. Everybody's working in silos," he said. "You're working over there, and they're working over here. If we all come together and unite, we could bring this together. It's not a police problem. It's an everybody problem. So if we could get together and unite, we could make this thing happen."

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Paralyzed by gang violence, Louisville man now uses his story to mentor the next generation