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Community talks nightclub violence after Cole's Place weekend shooting

The discussion took place inside Cole's Place, which is the same west Louisville nightclub where seven people were injured after shots were fired there early Saturday morning.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – An open and honest conversation about violence in Louisville attracted many Tuesday night.

“Being a kid in this community, you actually think being a shooter is what makes you a man. Being a kid in this community, it's in your mind that I'm going to shoot somebody to prove that I'm a man,” Community Activist Richard Whitlock said.

The discussion took place inside Cole's Place, which is the same west Louisville nightclub where seven people were injured after shots were fired there early Saturday morning.

“Next thing I know, I heard gunshots ring out and I just jumped to the concrete,” musician C-Tez recalled.

C-Tez joined several other young adults and talked about the risk that now comes with going to a nightclub, just a day after Councilwoman Jessica Green asked what's being done to keep people safe.

“Nobody wants to go out at night and worry about whether or not you're going to have to dodge a bullet or dive on the ground,” she told WHAS11 News.

“What happened this weekend, everybody was just having a good time it wasn't supposed to happen, just like a year ago, we were supposed to go out and have a good time as college students and it ended up in a bad situation where a 20-year-old college student who was loved by many lost her life,” Tejianna Saxton said, while talking about Savannah Walker who was killed last year at the Tim Faulkner Art Gallery, when shots were fired during a concert.

The panel of six talked in front of a large crowd, defending Cole's place and blaming a violent culture, not the club, for the weekend shooting.

“When I was a young man growing up in this community and I went to the club, I used to think there was a 50/50 chance I would get murdered or shot that day. Come to find out it's a five percent chance, and it's a five percent chance every day,” Whitlock said.

The panel hopes that this discussion will get Louisville one step closer to a safer community.

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