Smoketown neighbors after 4 shot on their porch: 'We need some help'

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – The four victims in Louisville's latest shooting were sitting on their front porch when they were shot Thursday evening.

LMPD is looking for suspects after the shooting at Clay and Jacob streets in the Smoketown neighborhood.

Police said three women and one man were shot but are expected to survive.

Derrick Dennis said he was getting out of his car at the nearby Sheppard Square housing development when it happened.

"People were running between the buildings saying, 'They're shooting'," Dennis said.

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It's not the first time he's been in that position.

"We march. We pray. We get together," Dennis said. "We have these vigils, and we're right back here at the same spot."

Shell casings spread out across the street bring back memories from August when 14-year-old Troyvonte Hurt was shot and killed and two others 
injured.

"It says that we need some help. We really need some help," Dennis said. "This is like deja vu all over again. We still have these balloons. We still have this kid's memory."

Thursday night, the balloons and teddy bears set up for Hurt were bathed in flashing police lights.

"I counted them. There were 42 shots," Lisa Baker, who lives just across from the intersection, said.

She's called the block home from the past decade.

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"Just in the last two years, it's gotten worse," Baker said.

She was on her porch when Hurt was killed in August.

"I watched that kid die," Baker said, wiping away a tear. "Last night, those shots sounded like they were in my backyard."

Baker's friends with the victims of Thursday's shooting. Police said the four victims were sitting on their porch when it happened.

"They've got to be 60 almost 70 and they're the ones that got shot," Baker said. "It's ridiculous."

Baker had her 15-year-old daughter in an upstairs bedroom.

"I'm not going to risk you a bullet coming through the wall," Baker said.

WATCH: William Joy's report here

The grief in the neighborhood isn't just for those shot or killed. It's for the pattern of violence that seems as endless as ever.

"They can't jump rope or play tag or catch without maybe having to dodge bullets," Dennis said.

"Unless we had a cop sitting here 24/7, it's not going to stop," Baker added. "It might ease up but it's going to come back eventually."

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