LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A man known to many in Louisville’s Russell neighborhood died after being found outside in the freezing cold Saturday morning.
Ricky Marshall, 56, didn’t have a home. He spent most of his time around a neighborhood tire shop, where friends said he was a familiar face and a kind soul who had fallen on hard times.
“He was a real intelligent young man,” said Meril Harris, a friend who tried to help him when he could. “They were trying to thaw him out — they said his body was like 16 or 18 degrees. He had already lost toes from the weather before this.”
Marshall was found sitting on the ground near the tire shop, without shoes, as temperatures plunged into the teens with a biting wind chill. He was rushed to the hospital, but friends said it was too late.
“I gave him some money to get something to eat,” Harris said. “But when I couldn’t find him that night, I went looking until two in the morning. Around five, they called me from the tire shop saying they found him.”
Marshall’s friends said his struggles began years ago, after witnessing a friend unintentionally shoot and kill himself.
“Billy was playing with a gun and shot himself — right in front of Ricky,” Harris said. “It traumatized him. He was good for a while, but his life went down the drain.”
Harris said nearly everyone in the Russell neighborhood knew Ricky, and many had tried to help him. But the cold and the years of living on the streets eventually took their toll.
“It’s just hard,” Harris said. “His life was already terrible as it was.”
Friends hope his story is a reminder of what happens when those without shelter are left out in the cold.
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