LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Leopard-print heels encrusted with jewels. Glossy black leather loafers. Flashy green Nike cleats with matching laces.
Arranged neatly on the steps of Louisville's Hall of Justice, each pair of the hundreds of shoes had a name, a date and a story.
Rose Smith, who spoke into a bullhorn at the top of the steps during a Sunday afternoon gathering, read a poem to the quiet crowd below.
“To truly understand my shoes, you must walk in them," Smith read. “Once you put them on, you can never take them off.”
“I will forever walk in these shoes of a woman who has lost a child," she finished.
Smith lost her son, Corey ‘Ace’ Crowe, to a shooting in 2014.
“I often say that Corey was fatally injured," she said, "but I was critically wounded.”
His shoes were just one pair among the dozens of other pairs representing dozens of other victims.
In the middle of all of them was a vibrant baby blue pair of tiny heels with bright pink bows. A small placard identified them as those of Trinity Randolph, one of the latest victims of gun violence in Louisville. She was just three years old when she was killed, along with her father, in an August shooting.
The shoes of Trinity Randolph, who was killed in an Aug. 2020 shooting. (WDRB Photo)
The loss devastated Kenneth Forbes, who lost his son to similar violence in 2012.
“(Randolph) never had a chance to go to school. Never had a chance to drive a drive, go to a prom, and just experience life that we all should be able to do," he said.
The group to which Forbes belongs, Mothers of Murdered Sons and Daughters of Kentucky, along with Smith's group, ACE Project, assembled the Sunday gathering with the help of a few others. Their goal was to give parents a chance to remind the community of their children’s names.
One by one, family members shouted the names of their respective loved ones as Nicole Cowherd, who's lost both her husband and son to separate shootings, pointed out each pair of shoes.
Cowherd, Smith, Forbes and the others also got a chance to remind the community of a persistent problem Louisville still hasn’t solved amidst yet another historically violent year.
Cynthia Garrett knows the pain of the deadly statistics. Her daughter, Alexandra Daggett, was killed in a March shooting.
“It’s exhausting to say the least," she said through tears.
Cynthia Garrett holds her daughter's shoes. (WDRB News)
Juan Garrett, her husband, wrapped his arm around the mournful mother.
“It’s a hurt that — I don’t know if I’ll ever get over it, but it’s a hurt. It’s a hurt when I go to bed. It’s a hurt when I wake up. It’s a hurt when I take a breath. It just hurts," he added.
A pastor addresses the crowd. (WDRB Photo)
As the shoes were slowly collected at the end of the ceremony, Garrett was asked what can stop the violent trend.
Togetherness, he said, is the only solution that’ll work.
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