LOUISVILLE, KY — A rap concert staged at the Tim Faulkner Gallery in Louisville, KY’s Portland neighborhood was interrupted by gunfire and panic in the early hours of Sunday, March 19, killing one attendee and leaving five other attendees injured.
Savannah Jeanne Walker, 20, a student at the University of Louisville, was pronounced dead at the scene from a bullet wound in the chest. The five who were injured sustained non-life threatening injuries, according to local police.
The concert, featuring New York-based rapper Artist A. Dubose, a.k.a. A Boogie With The Hoodie, was proceeding without incident in the gallery’s performance space when shots rang out at about 1:20 a.m., according to reports.
Several hundred attendees were at the event in the venue’s 10,000-square-foot performance space at the time of the shooting, which has a total capacity of 1,500, according to reports.
Concert-goers noted that the shots rang out without warning, saying that there was no apparent argument or escalation of violence leading up to the shooting; the first sound was the gunfire itself. Some attendees sustained trampling injuries in the ensuing stampede.
Police had not made any arrests in the immediate aftermath of the shooting and were asking the public for any tips, whether they had attended the event or noted anything suspicious on social media after the event.
Event organizers had made some efforts to screen for weapons as attendees were entering the concert but some had reported that some attendees might have been able to gain access without a thorough security check, according to local reports. The venue itself did not have any permanent metal detectors installed.
“The tragedy last night came as a shock and we are devastated,” noted the gallery owners, Tim Faulkner and Margaret Archambault, in a statement issued by their lawyer. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.”
The performance space was closed pending further notice, the statement added. “Please bear with us as we cancel programming out of respect to the victims, their families and those investigating the shootings.”
