LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A 17-year-old boy died in the hospital around 2 A.M. Tuesday, nine days after a double shooting in a parking lot at Pleasure Ridge Park High School.
Gunfire also hit a second victim in the Sept. 29 shooting outside the PRP high school football game. Police say that person is still expected to survive their injuries.
The crowd ran away after the gunshots popped off. Some students and athletes took shelter underneath the bleachers.
"Louisville, I love you," Will Pitts wants the city to know in the wake of this tragedy.
He—and his family—thought his cousin would survive. While mourning the loss, Pitts prefers people know him as a man fighting for a solution—by showing kids they can choose bright futures over violence through his non-profit, Shoot Balls Not Guns.
"You can always see that moment come up when kids believe in themselves and they realize there is an out," he said.
LMPD has at least two shooting suspects at this time, but only said those suspects wore masks during the shooting before running away into the surrounding neighborhood.
In response, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg brought back a 1983 city ordinance banning mask usage in public. Now, he's instructing the police department to enforce it.
Pitts says it's a slight step in the right direction, but just one of many towards a tomorrow without gun violence.
"When I see guns hanging out of people's pockets," Pitts explained, "that's more alarming than someone in a mask."
After this, it's a solemn reminder of the long road ahead toward peace.
"There's more work to be done," the peacemaker acknowledged.
It's a road he's willing to walk, whether it saves one life or one hundred.
The non-profit is raising money at a gala on the University of Louisville's campus on Dec. 6.
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