‘Nightmare.’ Dad of teen charged in shooting of 5-year-old speaks out on KSR radio.

Karla Ward
·3 min read

One of the young men accused in a shooting that left a 5-year-old Lexington boy blind is the adoptive son of a Lexington radio personality.

Ryan Lemond, of Kentucky Sports Radio, addressed the situation involving his son Michael Lemond, 18, on KSR Friday during a conversation with Matt Jones.

“It’s been a nightmare for my family,” he said.

Lemond said Michael Lemond has been “in and out of the juvenile detention center a couple of times” and has “been on the run from the police for almost a year.”

He was already in custody when he was charged Wednesday with two counts of assault and two counts of wanton endangerment in connection with the shooting that blinded Malakai Roberts and injured his mother, Cacy Roberts, early Dec. 21. Police said the shots were fired from outside the Roberts family’s home on Catera Trace. A second teen, Teyo Waite, 18, has also been charged in connection with the shooting.

Ryan Lemond said in the on-air comments Friday that “it’s a nightmare for a parent to go through, and at the same time, you feel so bad for the victim’s family.”

“Justice will prevail, and if he deserves to be punished, he absolutely should be punished,” Lemond said.

He said he’s appreciative of the supportive texts and tweets he’s received, and he asked for prayers for Malakai’s family and his own family. And he thanked his coworkers at KSR.

“I was in a dark place ... when Michael took off running,” Lemond said. “This show gave me a reason to get up every day, ‘cause I knew I was going to come in and sit down with my friends and laugh and smile for two hours and forget about all the problems I got going on with my son.”

His wife, Amanda Lemond, spoke out on Twitter, saying in two posts Friday, “There are no words to convey the sadness I feel. I am numb. To the mom who is also hurting — I am so sorry. We don’t know who the perso (sic) is who hurt your baby — that is not our child. These last few years have been HELL, literal hell.

“We have been quiet & leaned into our family & our faith. God can always turn a situation around. Honestly, there are no words. Please pray for all of us. And I mean, all of us. No one wins here.”

The Lemonds, who also have two other adoptive sons, adopted Michael Lemond through the Kentucky foster care system, according to the Thursday’s Child web page.