LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It's been a rough start to 2021 for a nonprofit organization based in Louisville's Portland neighborhood.
When Amy Leenerts showed up to Free2Hope Inc.'s drop-in center on Main Street to start work for the new year, she found her building riddled with bullet holes.
"I discovered holes all over the place," said Leenerts, the founder of the nonprofit. "At least 25, if not more."
Free2Hope Inc. provides support to victims of sex crimes and human trafficking.
"We help those women to go forward in their lives," Leenerts said.
Leenert has only had the drop-off center for a little more than a year and has worked countless hours to transform the building into what it is today. She just finished painting its exterior a few months ago.
Some bullets left large holes on the walls inside. Leenerts said she feels violated and disrespected.
"To come and find that somebody had just riddled the whole wall with gunfire is just — it's really sad and discouraging," she said. "... "For someone just to shoot it up for no good reason, I just don't understand."
Leenerts is not exactly sure when the damage happened, but neighbors in the area told her they heard nearly constant gunfire on New Year's Eve.
"This kind of stuff has got to stop," Leenerts said. "I have a young family up the road that I work with, and they had to go get all their children and have them lay on the floor on the ground so that they wouldn't be shot. I mean, it's just so sad that people have to live with that kind of fear."
Leenerts works hard to make the drop-in center a safe space for the women who depend on her services An incident like this makes her mission more difficult, she said.
"They do expect for it to be a place that's quiet and calm," she said. "That's what we do offer, but, you know, it wasn't obviously the other day."
Despite the damage, Leenerts said Free2Hope Inc. is staying in the Portland neighborhood. Services will still available at the drop-in center three days a week.
"I love these women; I do," she said. "We relate; they're almost like family to me, so I would hate to go off and just leave them."
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