WAVE 3 TV Louisville, KY | Police searching for pellet gun bandits

Police searching for pellet gun bandits

By Marisela Burgos - bio | email
Posted by Charles Gazaway - email

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Metro Police officers need help finding the people responsible for randomly busting car windows using either BB guns or pellet guns. In the past seven days, Officer Bill Mattingly said 26 car windows have been damaged in Okolona and Highview neighborhoods near the Gene Snyder Freeway.

At this time, officers barely have any information about the suspects.  Mattingly said the random crime is happening overnight hours between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. The victims have not reported anything stolen from inside their cars.

Joseph Shawler, who lives on Famous Way, had the back window of his car shattered on Sunday night, but said he never heard a noise. At 8:30 p.m., Shawler said got into his car and drove to Wal-Mart and hadn't noticed anything wrong. "I was going out to the grocery store to Wal-Mart that's when I pulled up on the street and noticed it was broke."

Shawler has lived on Famous Way for the past 45 years and said things have changed since he first moved to the area. "I guess it was just random shooting," Shawler said.

Three days later, there were still pieces of glass from Shawler's car window on his driveway. "I'm not going to tell you what I thought [when it happened]. Things like that aren't supposed to happen."

At least 3 other people who live on Famous Way were targets of the random crime. 52-year-old Raymond Harp was another one of them. Harp doesn't understand why a kid or kids would do that to 26 different people. "When I was a kid, I never thought of busting out people's windows."

Harp said the pieces to his back car window were everywhere. "It was like it exploded."  

Harp has fixed the damage, but he is worried that it could happen again, maybe at a time when his wife is getting ready to go to work. "It is very heart-wrenching you know. My wife getting up to go to work. She is scared to death now," Harp said.

Police and the victims of the random crime hope the pellet gun bandits are caught soon. 

"It is senseless,” said Shawler. “They got something else they'd be doing instead of doing that, but evidently not."

If you think you know who may be doing the damage, call or text the LMPD's anonymous tip line at 574-LMPD (5673).

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