LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Students living on State Street didn’t have the Labor Day weekend they'd expected. Cameras in the neighborhood caught cars blocking the road and people running down the street after hearing a string of gunshots.
One senior who was home, Vito Spadafino, says, "Literally, I just walked out on the front porch and a car just flew down the street. It was just lighting off I think 18 shots out the window and I saw everybody running down the street, screaming and stuff."
Another UK senior, Abby Millay, says, "Me and my friends, we all went inside because we didn't know what was going on and stuff. Then you could just see a bunch of people running down the street and stuff."
These seniors have lived here long enough to remember a similar incident last year. They didn't think it would happen again — but both UK and Lexington police responded to the neighborhood over the weekend. LPD says they arrived around 11:20 p.m. that Saturday night. They found two cars struck by gunfire while people were inside.
UK spokesperson Jay Blanton says, "There's not a lot we know right now, other than people are still investigating. No one was injured, no suspects that we know of at this time.”
Students were concerned, they didn't get an alert from UK. The school's spokesperson explained there wasn't an alert because it happened off-campus and they weren't asking students for immediate action. He says they encourage students to use the university's safety app and resources but says safety is a shared priority.
He says, "It might be a place, a reminder not to be in that area, particularly late at night, early in the morning. That's not to place blame on anyone at all, but it is to say that safety is a shared responsibility and we need to look out for each other and be aware and cognizant of those areas that are places of concern."
Blanton knows there have been issues on State Street in the past but says more often than not, those haven't involved students.
Millay says, "Honestly, it's crazy, it's scary, but it happens all the time nowadays, so it's like, you know, you could be there at the wrong time, you just never know."
Spadafino shares, "It's scary for that to happen, like, literally right in front of our yard, and it's just insane — and the amount of people that always just hanging out on their front porches is just insane that it happened. Especially so close to campus."
