Two men were killed and four people were wounded as gunmen exchanged about 20 shots at a Thanksgiving Day youth football event in Louisville, Ky., The Courier-Journal reported.
The shooting deaths at around 1:30 p.m. local time pushed the city past its homicide record as hundreds of men, women and children attended the annual Juice Bowl flag football event at Shawnee Park.
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“This is the worst Thanksgiving ever,” Charlotte Waddell, a cousin of the late boxing legend Muhammad Ali, told The Courier-Journal, which added that Mayor Greg Fischer was among the many in attendance and was only about 200 yards from where the shootings took place.
To have people with guns so disrespect life, Shawnee Park, and neighborhood tradition is sad and has no place in our city.
— Mayor Greg Fischer (@louisvillemayor) November 24, 2016
Children had finished playing flag football and two women’s teams were in the middle of a game when the shooting began.
The annual Juice Bowl is a Thanksgiving tradition dating to the 1950s.
With more than a month remaining in 2016, the homicides were the 111th and 112th in Jefferson County this year.
Fischer asked the public to help police find the shooters, who remained at large as of Friday morning.
The increase in homicides in our city should be alarming to everyone - and LMPD needs the public’s help to solve these crimes.
— Mayor Greg Fischer (@louisvillemayor) November 24, 2016
