An immigrant from Africa was shot to death in the Parkway Place public housing complex Monday afternoon as he packed up a moving truck.
Louisville Metro Police received a report at 1:30 p.m. of a shooting in the 1600 block of Moore Court, said Dwight Mitchell, a police spokesman.
Officers arrived and found a man who had been fatally shot. His name was not released.
Mitchell said he did not know how many times the man had been shot or the circumstances, but Muktar Abdulahi, the president of the Somali Bantu Community in Kentucky, said the victim was shot while loading a moving truck as his family prepared to move out of the apartment complex.
A number of Somali immigrants live in the housing complex, but Christopher 2X, who was helping the victim’s wife and other family members, said he was an immigrant from Burundi in Africa. 2X said the man, who immigrated to the U.S. in January 2008 and worked as a waiter at the Brown Hotel, had three children.
“This is a total tragedy,” 2X said.
Abdulahi said he did not know the victim personally, but had been alerted about the shooting by someone who works with his group as an interpreter.
Groups of people, many of them African immigrants, gathered outside police tape as detectives worked the shooting scene. A woman identified as the victim's wife was led to a police car, supported by two men as she cried and wailed. Police took her from the scene so they could speak to her.
Abdulahi said he encouraged the gathering crowd to stay calm and let the police do their jobs.
“We're trying our best to work with police,” he said. “And hopefully they will find the person who did this.”
Mitchell said homicide detectives were canvassing the neighborhood to find witnesses.
“We’re talking to anybody and everybody who could lead us to who did this,” he said.
Police Chief Robert White, who was at the scene, said he decided to go after he learned the victim was likely an immigrant. He said wanted to see how his troops handle situations that involve language and cultural barriers.
“A lot of times communication gets in the way of” quickly solving crimes, White said. But he said he was encouraged by the cooperation he witnessed among officers who were familiar with the immigrant community at Parkway Place and interpreters who helped police gather information.
White said he has been trying to go to more crime scenes in recent months to observe his officers in the field and show his support for their work.
Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to call the anonymous crime tip line at 574-LMPD.
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