LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In two days, Louisville has seen two young victims of gun violence.
Early Saturday, a shooting in PRP took the life of 17-year-old Da'moni Smith.
A little over 24-hours later, in a residential neighborhood off Westport Road in northeastern Louisville, police found a girl, they described as a "juvenile" with gunshot wounds to the leg and back area.
"It's been ebb and flow. I mean, when you look at 2020, (2021), (2022), you've seen a, a real uptick," Chris 2X of executive director of 2X Gamechangers said.
Recent trends tell us Louisville is seeing a decline in the number of young shooting victims year over year but still, the age group makes up a majority of shooting victims.
"There's a consistency that the problem has been redundant for far too long a time," 2X said.
Between 2020 and 2023, nearly 1400 people under the age of 25 became victims of gun violence.
This past year's number, 243, is the lowest the city has seen in at least five years.
"Everybody in the community, rightfully so, wants to advocate and wants to see a community for safe and healthy kids," 2X said.
Chris 2X-said his group treats youth violence like the public health issue it is.
"We want to treat it at the earliest ages to give it some hope before these kids even enter into the high school years space," he said.
One barrier to finding solutions, he says his group sees, is parents not seeking support or embracing outreach.
"One thing that is crystal clear to me after 23 years of observing this problem, is if we don't do early intervention, that problem is even more challenging to reverse," 2X said.
A 2023 report from the Greater Louisville Project found funding to youth-focused departments of Metro Government supporting youth and violence prevention shrunk from the Recession through 2021.
"You've got a lot of good efforts going on. I mean that sincerely. However, you're dealing with a situation of a city that unfortunately has not figured out how to get this problem, moving in another direction on the down tick," 2X said.
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