Police to increase presence after downtown attacks

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad says more officers are patrolling downtown after a string of attacks by crowd of teenagers injured six people.

Chief Steve Conrad said on Sunday that the violence is unusual and the city is safe. He said no weapons were used in any of the attacks.

“This situation was not common for Waterfront Park, it’s not common for downtown, and it’s not common for any neighborhood in our city,” Conrad said.

Louisville community activist Christopher 2X told The Courier-Journal (https://cjky.it/OR3lzT) that about 200 teenagers were at Waterfront Park Saturday night as part of a gathering that started through social media.

Conrad said the group seemed peaceful until shortly before 8, when the mood changed. He said a man stepped up to stop a 13-year-old girl from being robbed and assaulted and the crowd turned on him.

He said some of the teens then went on to attack people at different locations around downtown including people at a store, a family in a car and three others in separate incidents.

Store clerk Najisha McCubbins said she saw a group of teens coming down the street and told her husband, who was also working, to lock the door.

“(But) I saw it too late,” she said.

Once the teens got inside, she said they “bum-rushed” her husband, hitting him on the head and then took items from the store.

Jean Henry said her husband was attacked while they were on the Big Four Bridge with their grandchildren. They filed a police report Sunday after her husband was treated Saturday night at a hospital for contusions on his face, head and ribs.

“We were up there and so vulnerable up there, it was terrifying,” she said.

Chris Poynter, a spokesman for Mayor Greg Fischer, said the community leaders, including ministers and city officials, will be called to come together “to figure what’s going on and how to prevent this in the future.”

“It appears everyone targeted was completely innocent,” Poynter said. “It was completely random. And it is completely unacceptable.”

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Information from: The Courier-Journal, https://www.courier-journal.com