Louisville man paralyzed in shooting trapped in apartment for 5 days after elevator breaks

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville man, paralyzed after a shooting, says he was trapped inside his apartment for five days after the elevator at The Woods apartment complex broke.

For most people, a broken elevator is an inconvenience, but for Terrell Williams, it meant being trapped inside for days, waiting for help that was slow to come.

Williams moved to The Woods for a wheelchair-accessible unit, a rare find in Louisville.

“The measurements may be ADA compliant, the way I’m being treated is not accessible,” Williams said.

Eight years ago, Williams was shot while confronting a car thief.

“As soon as I did that I felt something pierce my right side,” he said.

That shot left him paralyzed from the waist down.

Saturday, as he left his apartment, Williams noticed the elevator was broken. He called management, but no one answered.

“I've had to cancel my doctors appointments, I can't get to where I'm going, I had plans with family and friends I had to cancel those,” Williams said.

He filed a maintenance request saying he was trapped. That request was opened, then closed.

“They called and said it's not the in-house responsibility to fix the elevator because of that, they had to cancel the work order,” Williams said.

This also wasn’t the first time he’d had issues. His air conditioning was out for more than 50 days in the summer, and his spinal cord injury makes it hard to regulate his body temperature. He asked to be placed in a unit with working air, but he said the complex did not comply.

After days of silence, he emailed management asking for a first-floor accessible unit or hotel room. They told him to contact renter’s insurance for a hotel stay — or move to a first-floor unit that wasn’t accessible.

“They said it's not their job to accommodate me, and I feel like that's not the case when what I'm paying for is accessibility,” Williams said.

He called management more than a dozen times.

“I just wish that they could put themselves in my shoes,” he said.

No clear action came until he called the fire department.

“That’s when they started reaching out to me like 'hey Mr. Williams, we're working on the elevator,'” he said.

The elevator was finally fixed Wednesday, minutes before WDRB's interview. Williams had been trapped inside his apartment for five days.

When asked why it took so long, management said: “We just got maintenance in today to fix the elevator. That’s just when they came to fix the elevator.”

When WDRB's Adi Schanie pressed further, management hung up the phone.

“It breaks my heart a little bit it just doesn't make sense man I shouldn't be treated this way,” Williams said.

While the elevator is working again, Williams said the system that left him waiting still needs repair.

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