20-year-old Kentucky father shot on his way home after visiting newborn twins in hospital dies at same facility
A Kentucky man who was shot while walking home after visiting his newborn twins in a hospital succumbed to his injuries at the same facility's ICU.
Tyrese Garvin, 20, was shot by three teenagers at 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 23, at Roselane and Clay streets in the Smoketown neighborhood of Louisiana as he was walking back from the University Hospital, according to WAVE3.
He took bullets on the body and the head and spent the next week at the ICU at the University Hospital where his twins were in the maternity ward. He was taken off life support and pronounced dead just after 3 p.m. on Friday, June 28.
The police said they had arrested three juveniles, aged between 14 and 17, and termed it a random incident. The names of the offenders have been withheld as they are juveniles.
Garvin, described as one 'full of energy and life' and sporting a 'contagious smile,' had reportedly landed a job at General Electric recently. "He was very excited at becoming a father," said Gail, a family member. "Then, something like this happens and his children will never get to know him. That’s sad."
Kathleen Roberts, his grandmother, could not hold back tears as she spoke. "It’s just a hard impact for me because I know I will never see him walk through that door and act silly with me anymore, but this is just so senseless," she said.
"He was just a random target of the teenagers," said Christopher 2X, a community activist. "This kid was loving life, and there is no reason for him to be shot like that. He was not the target, but go back to the kids. They’re so angry and they feel if you might be from this neighborhood, might as well just do you like this," he said.
Garvin's family is said to have visited several other gunshot victims, too, at the hospital, with the Louisville Metro Police stating that the incident was part of a disturbing wave of violence that saw young people stealing cars and using those in drive-by shootings.
It was reported that 12 people had died and several more injured in the city in gun violence in June alone. The fatality count would be 1,300 since the city-county merger in 2003. Another 4,000 were injured during the period. A GoFundMe page, to cover Garvin's stay in the ICU and his funeral, raised $25,638. The intent is to raise double that amount.