By John Boel
Published: Jun. 17, 2024 at 6:40 PM EDT|Updated: 16 hours ago
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Quirky. Eclectic. Charming. Bardstown Road: a mesmerizing row of restaurants, bars, boutiques, galleries, coffee shops, and nightclubs. It’s upscale yet it’s discount. It’s hippie yet it’s yuppie.
But there’s one spot where quirky gets murky. Eclectic turns to hectic. Charming becomes harming.
”Last July we had a murder right there 75 feet from here,” Bonnycastle Club President Mark Blankenbaker said. “This second house had bullet holes in their bathtub. Two other folks shot in that alley 100 feet from here. That’s pretty serious. Then a guy gets killed next door.”
Blankenbaker runs the Bonnycastle Club at Bardstown and Bonnycastle, the heart of where people live and work who’ve been pouring complaints into the WAVE Troubleshooters about crime there.
Like this one:
”We have gone from no fears of walking around to nonstop shootings.“
“Gun fire is now apparently the norm.”
And this one:
”Only in the past three years have things gone south.“
”An AK-47 bullet pierced my bathroom wall and ricocheted off my bathroom door.”
Neighbors supplied WAVE photos and video from security cameras of what happens all hours of the night there, regardless of when closing time is, when a sea of people cover the streets because no one appears to go home. Noise all night, loud enough to wake everyone up in the neighborhood. Sometimes brawls break out as late as three in the morning with no one breaking them up.
Video was sent to WAVE of the incident where three people got shot last July. Ricky Kemp, 31, died. It was right outside the Afrokanza Lounge in the 1500 block of Bardstown Road. There was also video sent that showed what it looked and sounded like outside when a man was fatally shot at Café 360 on March 3 at 3:30 a.m.
”They started running 10 to 15 seconds before the shot even went off,” Blankenbaker said. “They knew what was going to happen.”
Theodore Brown, 21, was the dead victim that time. Someone recently posted flyers around the neighborhood alleging certain businesses are “toxic,” contributing to the violence, and urging they be shut down. Multiple residents agreed to do interviews, then cancelled out of fear of retaliation.
”There’s no enforcement,” Blankenbaker said. “You know they had a meeting, end of July, had 300 to 400 people show up down the road at a church. Had a couple local metro council members bring a few police officers, and they talked about what they were going to do. But they didn’t really implement any of it.”
After the interview wrapped up, there was more gunfire in the streets right there. Even the candy storefront across the street getting blistered by bullets. When WAVE inquired about them with LMPD, it was returned with responses like these:
May 19: “Report of shots fired at Bardstown and Bonnycastle at 1:51 am. No victims. No report taken.”
May 23: “Just before 1 a.m. report of shots fired. Unable to locate any scene. No victims.”
So how bad is it? Troubleshooter analysis of police runs to that specific stretch, the 1500 and 1600 blocks of Bardstown road, from January 1 to May 1, revealed police were called there 135 times in 120 days.
The numbers stayed consistent even after changes were promised following the March 3 fatal shooting. In fact just four days later on March 7, police were called to Afrokanza Lounge at 1:32 a.m. and then Café 360 at 2:04 a.m. Often there were multiple calls to the area per day.
On April 11 police responding to Bardstown and Bonnycastle at 12:38 a.m., 1:24 a.m, 1:35 a.m. and again at 2:25 a.m. A few nights later on April 20, police were called at 12:30 a.m., 12:45 a.m., 12:50 a.m., and 2:56 a.m.
”What has gone on in this stretch of road the past few months is not acceptable,” Interim LMPD Chief Paul Humphrey said. “As long as we continue to have these problems we’re going to continue to respond to these runs and try to address the problem directly but then take the long-term steps that we have to shut the place down if they can’t take care of their own clientele.”
On his first day as acting LMPD chief, Humphrey reached out to weigh in on this report.
”This problem has gotten to the point where we need to be a little bit more vocal, step up a little bit more to address it because they’re clearly not taking care of it themselves,” Humphrey said.
“What do you tell the people living here?” I asked.
“Keep calling us when there’s a problem,” he said. “We’re going to continue to dowhat we can to address the problem. It’s at the point where we need to take other measures to solve this problem. The police aren’t going to solve it on their own.”
I went over all this with the manager of Café 360. He said his business is getting blamed for everything, but they never had problems until Afrokanza Lounge moved in next door. We’ve received no response yet from Afrokanza Lounge.
When WAVE requested an interview with metro councilman Ben Reno-Weber we were directed to speak with Alcoholic Beverage Control Director Brad Silveria about this. Silveria said they are taking action and he would have something to say about it soon.
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