LOUISVILLE, Ky. — On Dec. 3, 2018. Gary Cole Jr. had come here to Grand Ave. in the Chickasaw neighborhood to see a friend and get his car looked at.
But chaos several houses down, would make it's way to Cole Jr. An innocent man caught in the crossfire.
Cole Jr. was murdered in the 3800 block of Grand Avenue by a stray bullet. He was only 28 and a family man until the day he died.
"Right here, he always gave me a kiss right here on the cheek," Cole Jr.'s mother, Debora Cole recalls.
Cole still struggles to understand her son's murder
"It's very, very hurtful. Because he was the type of person who would give the shirt off his back," Cole said.
Detective Stephen Snider was called to the scene that afternoon. Snider says Cole Jr. pulled up in front of 3822 Grand Ave and that's when shots rang out - about seven houses down.
"As he was getting out, he was struck, and he did his best to make his way up the sidewalk here and actually collapsed to the left of the stairs," Snider said.
A stray bullet had struck Cole Jr. and not long after Debora's phone rang, her daughter on the other line.
"I said 'nah, not Gary.' And she said 'yes mama, you got to go down there to where the scene is.' She said 'he is down out there laying in the yard,'" Cole said.
Cole says her son, a man of faith, was found resting against a stone with a Bible verse on it.
"I just still couldn't believe it. I still couldn't believe it," Cole said.
Detective Snider has been trying to solve this case for over a year and is still trying to piece together the events that transpired that day.
"It's heartbreaking when she calls me because I know I don't have those answers that she's desperately looking for," Snider said.
However, piecing that day in December together has lead to one finding.
"It's a white and silver Crysler Pacifica and that was what was described that day as the suspect vehicle, a white SUV," Snider said.
The car was caught on neighbor's cameras taking off on nearby Garrs Ln. Snider confirmed that the timing matches and that its the last time they have seen that car.
"There's a whole lot of houses and there's a whole lot of people on this street, and somebody has to know something," Snider said.
For Gary's mother, Debora, not only does she want answers in her own son's murder... She doesn't want to see another innocent life taken.
"They out here in the street and no telling if they killed somebody else again," Cole said.
For the police working to get to the bottom of this, Snider believes there may have been more than one person and that Cole Jr. was not the target. Just a man there to get his car worked on.
"Our job as an investigator is to find the truth and seek that out, so that's what we're continuing to do," Snider said.
His refusal to give up makes Cole and her family confident that closure is coming.
"I gotta have faith, and I feel like sooner or later, he's going to be caught," Cole said.
Have you seen that white Crysler Pacifica around town? Do you potentially know who it belongs to?
If you have any information, call Crime Stoppers at 582-CLUE.
More from Crime Stoppers:
- 'I'm not going to live forever' | Louisville mother searches for answers nearly 10 years after son's murder
- 2 murders, 1 family: Louisville father loses son and grandson in less than two years, both cases remain unsolved
- 'Those cold cases, it takes years to solve them': Father seeking answers in son's 2019 murder
- 'One of our biggest complaints in St. Matthews is shoplifting': Police searching for Thanksgiving shoplifters
- 'It tore us up as a family, my kids are very broken': Mother searches for answers in son's New Year's Eve murder
- 'I had to watch my brother be carried out in a body bag': Family seeking justice 7 months later
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