Violent night in Louisville ends with 2 dead, 2 in hospital after 4 shootings

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The morning of Sept. 5, 2023, will haunt Minuette Atkins forever.

She woke up from a nap to find her 15-year-old son, Raymel, dying at the front door.

"It's like the bullets never stopped. It was so many," Atkins said Wednesday. "It was just all kinds of gunshots."

Atkins was visiting a healing garden Wednesday where her son's name will forever be remembered when she heard about Tuesday night's shootings.

"It breaks my heart," she said.

Four people were shot Tuesday night in Louisville in separate incidents across the city, and each incident happened within 90 minutes of each other. Two people died, one is in critical condition, and another is expected to survive, bringing the total homicides in Jefferson County to 68 in 2024.

"My heart pours out to the mothers," Atkins said. "I don't even have the words."

First, Louisville Metro Police responded to a reported shooting around 9 p.m. in the 3500 block of Versailles Lane near Preston Highway, according to spokesperson Sgt. Matt Sanders. Police found a man who was shot in the chest. Sanders said he was "conscious and alert" when EMS transported him to UofL Hospital, where he later died during surgery.

May 21st Shootings — Four people were shot in Louisville in separate incidents across the city, and each incident happened within 90 minutes of each other. *(WDRB Graphic)*

Nathan Short, 31, was arrested at the scene and charged with murder. An arrest reports says Short admitted to shooting and killing the victim during an altercation inside the home.

He is expected in court Thursday.

Twelve minutes later, police were called to West Market Street in the Shawnee neighborhood where they found a young man with gunshot wounds. He was transported to UofL Hospital and is expected to survive.

Six minutes after that, police were called to Garland Avenue in Louisville's Chickasaw neighborhood, where a juvenile was found with a gunshot wound to the head. According to Sanders, the victim "was beyond help" and pronounced dead at the scene. His age is unknown at this time.

Police did not make any arrests in that fatal shooting.

More than an hour later, LMPD was called out to the final shooting of the night, this one in the Portland neighborhood. They found a man lying in the street on North 20th Street with a gunshot wound to the head. He was transported to UofL Hospital, where doctors told LMPD the man is in "grave condition."

Right now, LMPD does not believe any of the the shootings are connected.

The city uses programs like Group Violence Intervention and LMPD's Gang Resistance Education and Training program to reach at-risk kids. The hope is to prevent these children from joining gangs and adding to the violence.

"It is gut-wrenching. It is horrific. It is unacceptable," Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said Wednesday. "We're doing everything that we can think to do. We need to do more and we know it. We will do more."

Greenberg called for the community to step up and help solving the shootings so no more mothers have to endure the pain Atkins faces every day.

"Put the guns down," she said. "Listen to your mother. Stay home."

Anyone who may have information about the shooting, or any other case, is asked to call LMPD's anonymous Crime Tip Line at 502-574-LMPD (5673). Tips can also be submitted anonymously through the Crime Tip Portal by clicking here.