'Stop this bleeding': Louisville homicide total drops but remains in triple digits

For the third consecutive year, Louisville suffered homicide totals in the triple digits — though violence may be on the decline.

Compared to 2021, homicides were down about 16% in 2023. In that same two-year period, nonfatal shootings dropped 38%.

"Those are pretty good numbers that we're seeing, particularly when you think we're still in the process of setting up our infrastructure," said Paul Callanan, executive director of the city's Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods.

In addition to Callanan's work, there's a system of city officials, advocates and citizens working to curb local gun violence.

"It is a public health crisis," said Christopher 2X, an advocate for gun violence prevention aimed at Louisville's youth. "The reckless gun violence in urban communities is a public health crisis."

While Louisville has made some strides in reducing gun violence, it remains a talking point among politicians and residents.

Mayor Craig Greenberg cited gun violence as a top concern and source of intense frustration when speaking with The Courier Journal in December. Louisville Metro Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel, who declined to be interviewed for this story, identified gun violence as a major priority when she assumed her position in July.

The solution to curb gun violence in Louisville is varied, but advocates and officials agree more needs to be done.

How many people were killed in Louisville in 2023?

LMPD reported 150 homicides in 2023 — with the year's first homicide reported on its very first night.

About 9 p.m. Jan 1, 2023, LMPD officers responded to the 1800 block of West Gaulbert Avenue, where they found Reginald Speight, 28, shot multiple times. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

"I would say the thing that I'm most frustrated by looking back on the past year relates to gun violence," Greenberg said.

Greenberg said his administration has been working with multiple partners — LMPD, community centers, neighborhood leaders, and families of the victims. But he said the city's work to reduce gun violence has been hindered by state and national lawmakers.

The mayor has called for the legislature to change state laws to give Louisville Metro Government more authority to make its own policies to address guns, in addition to changing a state law mandating seized guns used in violent crimes be auctioned off back to the public.

It's a stance that Greenberg maintains, saying Louisville needs more local autonomy "to reduce the amount of people who have illegal guns, who are using guns for the wrong reason (and) who are using guns to harm or kill people."

'You saw this perfect storm that led to this'

Louisville's year-end homicide totals are available on the city's gun violence dashboard, but that doesn't include every homicide. Homicides are evaluated by the Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney, which can determine a homicide is noncriminal; when that is the case, it is subsequently removed from LMPD's reported total.

LMPD's current total for 2023 and previous years only includes criminal homicides and is updated accordingly with the commonwealth attorney's evaluations. The homicide totals for previous years included in this story are based on LMPD's current list and may differ from past reporting.

Between the 2000s and the early 2010s, Louisville's yearly homicide totals fluctuated only slightly, typically between the 40s and 70s. Homicides topped 100 in 2016-2017, but dipped to 80 in 2018. In 2019, Louisville reported 89 homicides.

But in 2020, that total nearly doubled to 166.

According to Callanan, the spike in homicides can be attributed to several factors — external community stressors exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest following the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor and the closing of the Jefferson County Youth Detention Center.

"I think you saw this perfect storm that led to this," Callanan said.

It also happened in the aftermath of the Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods' funds being slashed in 2019 amid a budget crunch.

The total rose again in 2021, to 178 homicides.

To tackle the increase, Louisville had to rebuild its infrastructure of violence prevention. It's something Callanan did in Denver before coming to Kentucky in late 2022.

Through the American Rescue Plan Act, the office received several million additional dollars, allocated by Louisville Metro Council to implement programming to address violence. In the roughly 18 months since, the office has implemented many programs — some being mainstays while others have been pilots.

With some violence in Louisville being attributed to the activity of neighborhood-based groups and gangs, Callanan believes it's important to change the culture people live in.

"This is what, I think, drives the majority of violence in our city," Callanan said. "It's this commitment of individuals in groups and gangs to that 'street code' sort of value system — where violence begets violence, you have to respond to any act of disrespect with violence (or) the solution to any problem is violence."

2X agrees the long-term solution to Louisville's gun violence is cultural, which is why his nonprofit, 2X Game Changers, targets vulnerable kids between the ages of 4 to 13 and connects them with educational and community activities.

"The hope is that those involved in the culture look at (violence) as something that is not attractive anymore. And then we see those numbers start to reduce," 2X said. "That's what we're trying to do on the front end with our platform, which is let kids know this is not attractive, do not follow that kind of destruction."

How city, community leaders work to end gun violence in Louisville

The Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods uses different strategies to combat this culture, including funding six anti-violence coalitions that work inside specific neighborhoods by hosting events, organizing projects and coming up with the best long-term approach to curb each community's incidents of gun violence.

These teams exist in some of the city's most troubled, economically disenfranchised neighborhoods: Smoketown, Portland, Russell, California, Shawnee and Newburg.

Luke Chase was an early member of the anti-violence coalition in Portland, where he's lived for the past eight years with his wife and four children.

Chase said the group, which started about two years ago, has organized an array of initiatives — from hosting job fairs and expungement clinics to installing solar lights in areas where violence has been most likely to occur in Portland.

Last summer, the coalition helped buy five to 10 air-conditioning units for a local nonprofit's at-risk clients to curb any heat-related frustration and subsequent violence that could arise.

"We've tried to be really creative and think outside of the norm, to be proactive (and) to just do anything, really. Even if for today, we're able to be violence-free, hey, that's one day longer where people don't suffer," Chase said. "I think it's a very grassroots-type effort in that sense and that's why we need to bring a lot of people to the table for some ideas and to just keep the work going."

Chase believes the group's work connects with the community because its members are those primarily based or living in the area — parents, business owners, neighbors. Each team member has a vested interest in stopping the gun violence that happens on the same streets where they live or work.

"When you're a part of that work, you change and your neighbors change. Over time and over the longevity of it, I think the community (also) changes because as we change, our community will change. But to me, if you're not involved in (this work), then you're less likely to change," Chase said.

Another initiative was a collaboration with LMPD to release the gun violence dashboard, which launched in November. The tool publishes current and historic statistics related to the city's homicides and nonfatal shootings and is designed to increase awareness of gun violence in the city.

Collaboration between agencies and activism amongst residents is the goal, but while people do care and sympathize with the issue, it's hard to recruit residents, 2X noted.

"Gun violence is a nasty business," 2X said. "Out of fear, out of just the unknowns, most citizens don't want to get involved in being a part of advocacy work."

2X has been involved in advocacy work for more than 20 years. 2X Game Changers, which started in 2018, has programming including "Zoo Buddies," where children who have experienced trauma from violence can heal through spending time with animals at the Louisville Zoo.

One of the most successful programs is "Future Healers," a mentorship program with University of Louisville Hospital where young participants are introduced to the medical field while also dealing with their own emotional trauma. In its first year, the program had around 25 participants. This year, the class grew to more than 120. In 2023, Future Healers was recognized by the Kentucky Medical Association and received the Community Service Award for its work in helping kids impacted by gun violence.

"One of the things we've got to do, in combination with many times, is we've got to give our all to the little citizens who are being impacted by this situation," 2X said. "And maybe that can be a spinoff for change for the bigger citizens."

In addition to these initiatives, other organizations are working to curb Louisville's gun violence.

The city's Office of Group Violence Intervention facilitates partnerships with local, state and federal agencies to help young people in groups or gangs lead a path away from violence and crime. No More Red Dots uses those trained in intervention to recruit young people impacted by gun violence to be involved in a mentorship group and other programs.

While unveiling the gun violence awareness dashboard, Greenberg said he hoped it would lead to larger collaborations between agencies and citizens on finding solutions and resources to deal with gun violence.

"We need to be able to build a collaborative effort up," 2X said. "But at the end of the day, we've got to be realistic about what that looks like and how much time it takes to get there because it's not easy trying to recruit citizens into this issue."

'A game plan to stop this bleeding'

Some programs by Callanan's office have been funded through the American Rescue Plan Act with the impact of each pilot tracked and monitored. Since that federal funding was a one-time allocation, maintaining those programs could become more difficult.

Callanan expects his office will use this tracking data to show Louisville Metro Council which programs should remain funded based on their measured impact.

As far as his agency's 2024 plans, Callanan wants to find and fill gaps in gun violence prevention strategies, such as providing more resources aimed at underserved groups.

2X said his nonprofit is looking to expand its capacity and programming to reach more young people. While the decrease in gun violence and homicides in recent years sounds promising, 2X noted those numbers are nowhere near where they once were in the mid-2010s.

"Nobody's been able to come up with a game plan to stop this bleeding right now," 2X said. "I'm sad to say that, but that's facts."

But he hopes Louisville can eventually reach those past levels one day — if the work by law enforcement and advocacy groups continues.

Greenberg hopes the General Assembly will introduce legislation that gives "cities like Louisville the ability to do more to make our city safer."

"We've done what we can," Greenberg said. "But we'll continue to fight to do more … to reduce gun violence in our city."

Reach reporter Rachel Smith at rksmith@courierjournal.com or @RachelSmithNews on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville's 2023 homicide total down, but gun violence persists