LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Josh Kustes grew up in Portland, and he's worried about his own kids now. They live a block up from where one person died and another was sent to the hospital on Thursday.
"This is becoming a normal thing in our neighborhood," Kustes said. "Being a dad down here, that's the sad part." He's lost a friend to gun violence and says the issue is getting worse.
Louisville Metro Police said officers were involved in the shooting that left one person dead and another critically injured. An emergency caller told them someone in a home was on drugs, pointing a gun at people inside, and that a child was in the house. After trying to talk to them, officers forcibly entered the house and shots were fired.
WHAS11 News is still not sure if officer gunfire hit either person or how many people were involved in the domestic dispute.
"I'm not sure of all the details, but I did see that the police officers had to wrap the kids outside because of what was going on," Kustes said.
It was a quiet Friday morning on North 25th Street; little bits of crime scene tape were left from Thursday night's violent scene.
It was then, late into the morning hours, LMPD Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel came out and gave an update.
"Individuals in possession of guns in our city that should not be in possession of them; this must stop," she said.
Kustes heard the sirens first when he came out to see the scene, then "the wailing of the family members who [showed] up to find out that their family member had been shot."
Vernell Jones, who lives up the road, knows that pain.
"It makes me tear up sometimes, especially losing my sons," he said. He lost them to gun violence a few years apart. "Dealing with this pain and anger every day, how we treat each other as people..." Jones tried to figure it out what to say, but fell short of words as he considered what a solution to it all might be.
Kustes remembered a time in the neighborhood when it wasn't a worry.
"I remember being my son's age, 15, being able to play at these parks freely and just not having the worries my kids are coming at me with nowadays," he said.
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