1/1/2021- 5:16 p.m
A funeral in the Park Duvalle neighborhood turned violent on New Year’s Eve.
Louisville Metro police are investigating a shooting that took place around 11:45 a.m. Friday outside a church on Chauncey Avenue, not far from Russell Lee Park.
MetroSafe said shots were fired and someone was wounded outside. The Louisville Metro Police Department said the 2nd Division is handling the investigation.
A spokesperson for the LMPD said officers found a man in his 20s with a gunshot wound to his forearm.
Relatives at the church spoke to WLKY about what happened.
According to relatives, the funeral was for 84-year-old Martha Doyle. Family members said the funeral had not started yet when shots were fired outside.
“For all the people that love her to come and pay respects, that’s all we were looking forward to,” said Doyle’s son, Michael Simonton. “As far as somebody showing up to shoot somebody, I never would’ve thought that would’ve happened today.”
One of Doyle’s relatives, her grandson, was the person who was wounded, family members said. Police said the victim, a man in his late 20’s, was shot by someone who approached him outside the church.
“Whoever the guy was, he waited all the way in the back of the parking lot, and waited for my nephew to go to his car,” Simonton said. “Then he started shooting at him. There were so many shots, he should’ve killed everything moving, but by the grace of God no one was hurt badly.”
The gunman then fled the scene in an unknown direction, police said.
