On December 12, 2019, my son was on his way home from a restaurant, not four blocks from home. He was walking down the street when a car drove down the street, approached him at the corner of 43rd and Market, rolled down the window and shot him. My son never knew what hit him; he never regained consciousness. He was the last homicide of that year in Louisville, Kentucky.
He was a great kid. He had just turned 19 on Thanksgiving that year. Three weeks into his 19 birthday and 6 days before Christmas we lost a piece of our soul with no understanding of why. My son was no gang member or ever in trouble with the law. He worked every day and respected his parents and loved every one he came into contact with. We lost our smile when we lost him, and we have not smiled since. The world doesn’t rotate the way it did the day before he died. It feels like it’s just sitting still.
My son is Christian Gwynn, 11/28/2000-12/19/2019, forever 19. Ever year after my son, the homicides have gone up in numbers. Just last year, 2022, it was 168 fatal, 500+nonfatal.