One student dies after two teens shot at Louisville school bus stop Wednesday
One Jefferson County Schools student, a 16-year old male, died after a shooting a school bus stop at Dr. W.J. Hodge and West Chestnut streets in Louisville Wednesday morning, police said.
Three juveniles in total were injured in the drive-by shooting. One of the kids died at the hospital, according to police.
Another teenage male was wounded and taken to the hospital while the third juvenile was injured by “unknown means” and declined medical treatment, according to Louisville police.
At a press conference later Wednesday, Louisville Police Chief Erika Shields said the department wants to find a gray Jeep with an Illinois license plate.
Shields said it’s unknown if the driver of the vehicle was involved in the crime or witnessed it.
At that same press conference, Shields and mayor Greg Fischer and others offered their condolences to the affected families.
“As mayor of Louisville, it’s my job to shepherd our city through the best of times, the worst of times and the times in between, and clearly the loss of another child to meaningless violence is one of the worst of times,” Fischer said. “As a father and a grandfather, this breaks my heart, and even the most caring words seem inadequate in offering solace to a family suffering such an irreplaceable loss.”
Shields said the Jefferson County Board of Education it needs to create its own police department for its school system, and if changes aren’t made, similar crimes will keep happening.
“We can’t sit here with our thumbs up our (expletive), do nothing different and think we won’t be back at this podium,” Shield said. “I can promise you, I will be banging that drum loudly because we have to change the paradigm.”
At about 6:30 a.m., an unknown amount of kids were at the bus stop in Louisville’s Russell neighborhood awaiting pickup by a school bus. Police said they didn’t know if adults were with the children at the bus stop.
A vehicle drove by and fired shots at the group of kids, according to police, striking the two youths.
A bus arrived at the stop shortly after the incident and was headed toward Eastern High School according to JCPS communications representatives Renee Murphy.
School is carrying on as usual at Eastern High School but support will be on campus to help the students.
“This is devastating to us to hear of the loss of one of our students,” said Murphy. “This is terrible. This is devastating. All of our hearts are breaking right now. We are thinking of the family and we will support the families as best we can throughout this process.”
Louisville Metro Police Department’s homicide unit is investigating the shooting.
This story was originally published September 22, 2021 at 9:33 AM.
