LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Joshua Barrick had worked at Old National Bank as a senior vice president for less than a year when he was fatally shot minutes into a meeting on April 10, 2023. He was one of five people killed during the mass shooting in downtown Louisville.
“That morning he told me there was a big meeting he had to go, but he may just sleep in. He was so tired. But he would never do that," his wife, Jessica, remembered nearly one year later. “We joked around. I left to take the kids to school and he called me after I dropped them off and we talked the whole ride down while he was driving to work. We were laughing about Spring Break, telling stories, just giggling. It was the best conversation."
That was the last conversation Jessica shared with her husband Josh.
From the moment they first met at a bar in Savannah, Jessica said she was sold on marrying him.
"There was just always something different about [Josh], he just had these big bright eyes and you just knew he was a good person," she said. "I can't explain it. Those eyes and that face, I was done."
The couple married, moved to Louisville, and started a life together, raising two kids in the Catholic school system.
"We were just kind of getting to this sweet spot where the kids were getting more self-sufficient, and we had our own time again. And it’s just so unfair to think about all that we were robbed of. And the kids too. We were supposed to have so much more time,” Jessica said.
The first sign that something was wrong on the morning of April 10 came from a phone call from a friend.
“She said 'I’m sure everything is fine, but I think something is going on at Josh's building, have you heard from him?’ I said no, what do you mean something is going on?" Jessica said. "I didn't understand what that could mean."
She was desperately trying to get in touch with her husband, who she knew was at the bank for a scheduled meeting.
"I was afraid to call him because if he was hiding, I didn't want his phone to ring. So, I texted him. I texted a bunch. I did end up calling. I just kept trying to reach him,” she remembered.
Eventually she drove downtown, frantically trying to find her husband. Jessica said she went from place to place and landed at UofL Hospital where one of the victims was in surgery. She hoped it was her husband.
"I knew in my heart it wasn't good news, but I was trying…like maybe he's here,” she said.
At the hospital, Jessica learned the person in surgery was a woman. Then, hospital staff escorted her and her family to a room where she waited for an update.
"A police officer came, and at this point I knew. I had to fill out a paper of what he had been wearing that day. And they ID'd him. And then they came back and told us,” she said. "When she said it, it was just like the world stopped spinning for me. I don't think you're ever prepared to hear that your person is gone. And in such a way."
In just seconds her world came crashing down. She said her focus quickly turned to her children, how she would tell them and how they would move forward.
"It was just trying to survive those first few days with the kids. And some days it’s still like that," Jessica said.
As days turned to weeks, Jessica said she grew more curious about the case and read the investigative reports as they were revealed. She also read the shooter’s manifesto, which included multiple handwritten letters from the gunman.
"It was very difficult to read what he wrote and as he was planning it," Jessica said. "I kept thinking about what we were doing on those days, the dated sheets of paper. It’s hard to think we're on spring break doing this and he's planning this type of thing.”
Just recently, within the last few weeks, Jessica watched video from inside the bank, showing the shooting.
“I needed to see it and experience it with him, as closely as I could,” she said.
Her husband was killed in the hallway, trying to run from the gunfire. She said watching that was heartbreaking. She knows he was trying to survive, for them.
"It just breaks my heart into a million pieces to know what he went through and he was trying but he just didn't have a chance," she said.
Jessica emphasized how proud she is to be Josh’s wife. After he died, multiple local communities rallied around her and the kids, with an enormous outpouring of support.
"Something like this can easily just take your faith. But the way the community just rallied around our family- I've never seen anything like it," she said.
There were fundraisers put on by friends and family and some by strangers. Something, Jessica said, would be hard for Josh to believe. "He was so humble- he just never would've guessed, never would've known how loved he was."
Jessica knows she and her children were the center of his world and he is still the center of theirs. She said they talk about him often, they share stories, tell jokes they think he would have liked and her children still write him notes.
Moving on isn't something she thinks they'll ever do, but moving forward is their goal.
"A new normal we don't have yet. We're trying to find it. He was just such a… he was the centerpiece of our family. He was who we all leaned on. I don't think I realized how much I leaned on him until he wasn't there anymore. I think it’s going to be a long time for us to adjust to what our life is now,” Jessica said.
Her message to other families across Louisville is simple, love your people and make sure they know.
"If it can happen to me and my kids, it can happen to anybody," she said. "Tell the people that you love that you love them and be present with them when they're with you."
Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.