The law barred Florence mass shooter from having a gun, but who enforces it?

Cameron Knight, Cincinnati Enquirer
Updated ·3 min read
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Editor's Note: This story has been updated to include comments from the Department of Corrections.

Chase Garvey should not have had the gun he used to kill four people and wound three at a Florence birthday party on Saturday.

State and federal laws are clear on the matter, but enforcing those laws is complicated. Short of searching every convict's home, police and probation officers must rely on the honesty of the convicted.

On top of that, the probation officers who would be doing those searches are held back by bureaucracy and "woefully understaffed and underfunded," according to Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders.

It is unclear how Garvey got the gun. Florence police officials said Wednesday that the ATF is still tracing the weapon.

Chase Garvey, 21, of Florence. Police say Garvey shot and killed four people and injured three others at a birthday party in a Florence home early Saturday morning.
Chase Garvey, 21, of Florence. Police say Garvey shot and killed four people and injured three others at a birthday party in a Florence home early Saturday morning.

The 21-year-old pleaded to an unlawful transaction with a minor when he was 18. He could have obtained the gun before his conviction, he could have illegally purchased it after his sentence or he could have got it from another person. But he was still on probation when he shot seven people before taking his own life.

Mitchel T. Denham is the former Assistant Deputy Attorney General of Kentucky. He said felony convicts in Kentucky are informed they cannot possess weapons and that doing so would result in more felony charges.

He also explained that felons give up certain rights as a condition of probation. They sign a "consent to search" document that allows probation officers to search their residences without a warrant.

He said a felon could be living with someone who is able to legally purchase and own a firearm. Denham said judges usually tell the felon and his family that there should be no firearms in the residence at all, but there could be legal exceptions to this.

Sanders said the system as it stands works to a point. Police frequently catch felons possessing weapons and charge them with new crimes.

"I don’t think we are any less successful at preventing felons from breaking this law than we are at preventing them from breaking any other laws," he said.

But Sanders said the Kentucky Department of Corrections is burdening their probation and parole officers with "stupid bureaucratic rules" preventing them from charging felons with new offenses.

One of those rules, he said, makes it harder to go after probation violators by requiring probation and parole officers to call another law enforcement agency, usually local police, to file charges. That takes enforcement out of the hands of the probation and parole officers whose job it is to monitor felons.

"It's ridiculous because (probation and parole) officers are no less of a law enforcement officer than any other cop," Sanders said.

The Department of Corrections said in a statement that the current administration has supported probation and parole officers by raising the starting salary for the position from $34,799.80 to $52,501.44 annually. The Beshear-Coleman administration has recorded the three lowest recidivism rates in over a decade, the statement said.

“This is a horrific situation and one where many lives have been lost and victims and their families are hurting, and our hearts go out to all involved," said Lisa Lamb, Department of Corrections spokesperson. "Probation and parole does not file new criminal charges but submits violations of an offender’s probation conditions to the judicial system for further action."

Lamb added that Garvey was granted five years of probation from Kenton County Circuit Court in June 2023. Then in August 2023, the probation and parole officer requested a revocation from the court who issued a sanction of 30 days in jail and ordered him to remain on probation.

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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How did Chase Garvey, a felon, have a gun to shoot up Florence party?