A mayoral candidate in Louisville, Ky., stated he was the goal of a capturing inside his marketing campaign workplace on Monday that left him unhurt however shaken — and with a bullet gap at the back of his sweater.
The candidate, Craig Greenberg, stated he and 4 members of his marketing campaign group have been in a morning assembly close to downtown when a person walked in.
“After we greeted him, he pulled out a gun, aimed immediately at me and commenced capturing,” Mr. Greenberg stated at a information convention.
The gunman was standing within the doorway as he fired his weapon a number of instances, Mr. Greenberg stated, and a member of his marketing campaign workers slammed the door shut earlier than serving to to construct a barricade out of tables and desks.
Law enforcement officials who responded to the scene detained a suspect exterior the constructing. No expenses have been introduced.
Mr. Greenberg declined to say whether or not he acknowledged the attacker, citing the police investigation, and it was not clear why he was focused.
Chief Erika Shields of the Louisville Metro Police Division stated at a information convention that attainable causes for the assault embrace Mr. Greenberg’s mayoral candidacy or his Jewish id, however that it was additionally conceivable that the police have been “coping with somebody who has psychological points or is venomous.”
“Till we are able to decide what the motivating elements have been, we’re going to preserve an open thoughts and proceed with an abundance of warning and concern for a lot of of our group members,” Chief Shields stated.
Mr. Greenberg, a Democrat, is in a crowded race to exchange Mayor Greg Fischer, a Democrat who can not run once more as a result of he’s restricted to a few phrases. The celebration main contests are in Could, adopted by a normal election in November.
There are eight Democratic candidates, together with David L. Nicholson, the Circuit Court docket clerk for Jefferson County; the Rev. Timothy Findley Jr. of Kingdom Fellowship Christian Life Middle; and Shameka Parrish-Wright, a neighborhood social justice activist. Invoice Dieruf, the mayor of Jeffersontown, a Louisville suburb, is without doubt one of the 4 Republicans within the race.
Mr. Greenberg is a businessman who has been the president of a boutique resort chain and a member of the College of Louisville’s board of trustees. He has been endorsed by no less than six members of the 26-person Metro Council, together with its president.
The highest problem on Mr. Greenberg’s marketing campaign web site is public security. An eight-page plan outlines his want, amongst different issues, to rent practically 300 cops and to dedicate extra sources to fixing violent crime and ensuring unlawful weapons keep off the streets.
“Too many Louisville households have skilled the trauma of gun violence,” Mr. Greenberg stated after the capturing. “Too many in Louisville weren’t as blessed as my group and I have been immediately to outlive.
“Clearly, far more work must be finished to finish this mindless gun violence and make Louisville a safer place for everybody.”
Like many massive cities, Louisville has seen a rise in violent crime in the course of the coronavirus pandemic. Town set a document with 173 homicides in 2020, after which broke it with 188 homicides final 12 months. There have been 18 homicides this 12 months by means of Feb. 6, in accordance with the Police Division, barely behind final 12 months’s tempo.
The Police Division itself has been beneath scrutiny for years, most prominently after officers killed Breonna Taylor throughout a botched drug raid in her condominium in March 2020. The police chief at the moment was fired after officers killed a restaurant proprietor throughout protests over Ms. Taylor’s loss of life.
On Monday, Mr. Greenberg thanked the Police Division for its swift response to the capturing and its every day efforts to maintain town secure. He stated he needed to go dwelling and hug his spouse and two sons, pausing to compose himself.
“All of it occurred so fast, however it’s a really surreal expertise,” he stated of the capturing. “There are far too many different folks in Louisville who’ve skilled that very same feeling.”