There have been 13 substantiated shootings in Owensboro so far this year as of Thursday afternoon, and as many as nine of them could be related. As of Tuesday, charges had been brought against three adult males, three juvenile males, and two juvenile females.
For reference, there were a total of 17 substantiated shootings combined in January of 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Owensboro Police Department Public Information Officer Andrew Boggess said OPD knows four of the 13 shootings this year “are not related in any way and are totally separate.” That includes Wednesday’s fatal shooting.
He couldn’t go into specifics and there are varying levels of certainty on the connection of the other nine, but Boggess said “we think the majority of them are definitely going to be related, and it’s possible that all nine would be related. I just can’t say that with any certainty yet. There are a couple of them that we haven’t gotten far enough in the investigation to rule it out or confirm it.”
Boggess said the majority of them are still open cases, though some charges have been brought already against three adults and five juveniles. Even in those, there may still be additional charges, so the cases are still open.
Boggess said for a reported shooting to be considered substantiated, detectives must find some form of evidence.
“We have to be able to substantiate that there actually was a weapon discharge,” he said. “In most cases, that’s going to be damage of some sort, but we do occasionally get one where we only find a casing.”
Boggess said it can be tricky when only casings are found.
“Sometimes that might be what it starts out at and that’s all we can confirm that day. Then days later or sometimes even a week later … we’ve had before where somebody’s on vacation and they come home a week or two later and find damage to their house that we were unaware of or unable to locate initially. That’s why anytime we can confirm that there is a firearm discharge, we’ll go ahead and count it.”
A few shootings so far in 2022 have resulted in no damage and only casings being found. A handful more have included damage to vehicles and homes being struck but no injuries. And even in the cases with injuries, most of those have been relatively minor injuries.
Boggess said those cases are taken just as seriously as one with a fatality, because when a firearm is discharged it’s inherently dangerous.
“Bullets travel a long distance unless they are stopped,” Boggess said. “So, that’s an issue with these shootings where we’re having vehicles and residences shot up. That person doesn’t know what’s on the other side of that wall. The unfortunate thing about it is sometimes you will have people, just due to being in a certain location, can be put at risk even though they might not necessarily be an intended target.”
Boggess said when a person is not actually struck by gunfire, the charge will end up being first-degree wanton endangerment (Class D felony). If someone is struck but not killed, Boggess said it’s typically going to be either first-degree assault (Class B felony) or second-degree assault (Class C felony).
He said upgrading those to an attempted murder or murder charge depends significantly on the criteria and the specifics of each case.
Boggess said they are taking various approaches to trying to curb the amount of gun violence, but also noted that much of it appears to be coming from a “small group of individuals.”
We’ve done a couple of things at the patrol level like modifying and increasing our presence and more closely monitoring hotspots,” Bogges said. “But the biggest thing, which can be seen by our announcements today, is that we are allowing our detectives a chance to investigate thoroughly and bring charges against the suspects.”
Boggess said it takes time, because even if they have a suspect the detectives need to gather enough information to both bring charges and convict those involved.
“Getting people in custody and off the street is the single biggest thing we can do to try to stop all this,” Boggess said. “So much of this is small groups of individuals, that getting even one of them off the streets eliminates some of this crime.”
Boggess also said the community can help by providing any information they have.
“These investigations take a large amount of time and info before people can not only be charged but be proven guilty,” he said. “We may have our own leads, but if people have more tips and info that can get us further into cases to charge suspects, they need to let us know.”
