A Lexington teenager suffered multiple gunshot wounds early Sunday morning amid a crowd of more than 100 people exiting the Cherry Pit night club.
Now Richmond Police are asking for help to locate the shooter.
Richmond officers responded to calls of the shooting at 2:35 a.m. outside the Cherry Pit near the intersection of Water Street and South Second Street, a RPD press release states. Nineteen-year-old Lamar Kennedy was found incapacitated outside the club, the release states.
“(RPD Officer) Kelly Rouse was the first officer on the scene,” said RPD Sgt. Willard Reardon. “He was in the area and actually heard the shots. Probably with his quick response he did help the victim because of his background as a paramedic, being well-trained in law enforcement as well as being a very good paramedic.”
As of about 2 p.m., Kennedy was listed in critical condition in the University of Kentucky Medical Center, the release states. However, calls to the hospital Sunday evening returned reports of “no information” as to his condition. Reardon did not have information about how many times or where Kennedy was shot.
“He had a couple surgeries and they were talking like he might be going back for a third, but I don’t know that for a fact,” Reardon said. “I do know he was in critical condition and was still basically hanging on. I don’t know if anything has changed since then. Obviously, if the victim was to pass on, this would be upgraded to a murder case.
“The big thing right now is that we have no motive,” Reardon said. “We have no suspect. We are trying to get people to come forward who might have been there. The call can be anonymous or we can have somebody come out and talk to them. We are really appealing to the public who might have been in that area, who saw anything at all. Even the smallest thing might be something we need. All we have right now is a person who was shot multiple times with no motive and no reasoning with no real way of telling what transpired.”
Several agencies — including Kentucky State Police, Madison County Sheriff’s Office and Eastern Kentucky University Police — responded to a scene Reardon described as “chaotic.”
“Officers at the scene reported that there were 100 to 150 people in the area at the time, a number of which were interfering with the officers’ efforts to render assistance to the shooting victim,” the press release states.
The RPD Investigations Unit is working the investigation, and anyone with information that may assist them can call 859-623-8911.
Kelly Foreman can be reached at kforeman@richmondregister.com or 624-6694.
