LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The short stretch of Cecil Avenue just south of West Market Street in the Shawnee neighborhood has seen more homicides than any other in Louisville.
Just a few houses down the street, neighbors walk past a makeshift memorial reminding them of the two teenage girls who were shot and killed over the summer.
“I got two children and that was unnecessary, you know. It saddens me right now as we speak. I knew the girls,” William, a neighbor said. “It saddens me when a kid can't come outside and play.”
While WHAS11 cameras were in the neighborhood on that fall day, it was mostly quiet. School buses were arriving, dropping kids off who were headed home.
“Sometimes I hear a lot of fireworks. I think it depends now. Living here is kind of sad but like gunshots and fireworks sound the same,” Jayla, who also lives in the neighborhood, said.
At one point, two cars stopped in the middle of the street, revving their engines, broken glass shattered, and they began speeding up and down the street.
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“Normally when they drive up and down the street, it gets a little bad,” she said.
People don't hear fights or arguments, it's mostly rounds sprayed from cars in drive-by shootings.
“We don't even know who is shooting who,” she added.
Miles across town, three people have been killed on Bardstown Road. The violence has reached a point that community ambassadors now walk down the street to make people feel safer.
“Do you feel safe though – walking?” Reporter Kristin Goodwillie asked.
Rachel said, “Alone? No. But in groups, it’s fine.”
Allison added, “It’s gone on more than the last couple of years. But its gotten worse and worse and worse.”
On West Kentucky Street in Parkland, almost every person we talked to had been impacted by gun violence.
“Down here, it’s just part of nature,” Beverly said.
Red paint breaks around a bullet hole in a resident’s truck. He wanted to talk but asked to remain anonymous.
“It’s terrible for this area to be so small. We have gunfire every night. I mean proof – it’s what happened to my vehicle,” he said. “Imagine if my truck wasn’t here. Where would it be then? It probably would be in front window.”
In the home where he raises his young child.
The anonymous resident and Jason, another neighbor, thinks there is a larger issue.
“That’s the problem. It’s kids with guns,” Jason said.
The resident adds, “It’s like they playing a video game. Thinking you'll be able to press rewind or reset, there's no reset button with the games ya'll are out here playing.”
No arrests have been made about 62% of cases involving murdered kids.
“It's the code out there, don't snitch, don't tell,” the anonymous resident said.
Jason added “Everybody who lives in the community has got to stop. We've got to say no more.”
Louisville teens share thoughts on violence during WHAS11 News roundtable discussion
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RESOURCES:
- No More Red Dots
- Seven Counties Services 502-589-4313
- R.I.S.E. Club 502-585-5437
- Feed Louisville
- AMPED
- Connect Louisville Youth
- Hope Community Center
- Kentucky Alliance
- Metro United Way
- The Spot
- The Ace Project
- The Kentucky Center for Grieving Children and Families