Five teenagers were injured in a shooting near the Big Four Bridge in downtown Louisville Saturday night. According to Louisville Metro Police Department spokesperson Alicia Smiley, one of them is in critical condition. She did not provide ages, but said that both male and female victims were injured.
Smiley said in a statement that police were dispatched a little after 9 p.m. after receiving a report that three people had been shot. They were transported to University of Louisville Hospital.
Police then found two other victims who had also been shot. They went to U of L Hospital by private means, Smiley said.
LMPD’s Homicide Unit is handling the investigation.
Police have asked anyone with information on the shooting to call the anonymous Crime Tip Hotline at 502-574-LMPD or leave a tip online.
Earlier that afternoon, students, survivors of gun violence and politicians gathered outside Louisville Metro Hall as part of a March For Our Lives demonstration calling for “common sense” gun legislation.
Demonstrators marched to Sen. Mitch McConnell’s Louisville office to urge him to take action on immediate gun reform legislation.
The Louisville Metro Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods, which participated in the rally on Saturday, responded to the news of the shooting.
“This demonstrates how violence is a scourge in our community, and that’s exactly what the Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods is working to eliminate. We have a lot of work ahead of us,” Loni White, an office spokesperson said.
District 6 Metro Council Member David James, a Democrat, attended the demonstration.
“It’s heartbreaking to see a mass shooting in our great city on the same day that so many citizens rallied in downtown Louisville to protest gun violence. My prayers go to the victims and their families from this senseless gun violence incident. Our country desperately needs to address this issue.”
James is a former LMPD officer and current Metro Council president.
There were at least two other shooting homicides in Louisville earlier in the week. This is the 256th mass shooting in the country this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
This story has been updated.
