Police say surveillance video captured an assault, a handoff of a handgun and a command to shoot.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An 18-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy were charged after another 13-year-old was shot multiple times in Louisville’s Smoketown area, where police say a street fight escalated into a gun attack on March 20.

Authorities say the case matters because it moved quickly from a daytime shooting of a child to arrests of two suspects, including another child, and because investigators say surveillance video captured key moments of the violence. Louisville Metro Police identified the case as a non-fatal shooting, while court and jail records tied the adult defendant, Chrishau’d Davis, to felony charges that include attempted murder or murder counts in varying reports, along with assault-related accusations. The juvenile suspect also faces serious assault and attempted murder allegations.

Police said the encounter began around 4 p.m. on March 20 in the 900 block of South Shelby Street in Louisville’s Fourth Division. Investigators say Davis, 18, and another 13-year-old got into a physical fight with the victim, who is also 13. According to the arrest account cited by local media, Davis struck the victim in the head multiple times with a handgun during the fight. The three then moved out of view of at least one camera. When Davis and the younger suspect came back into frame, police say, Davis retrieved the gun, handed it to the 13-year-old and yelled for him to kill the victim. Officers later found the boy suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, and he was taken to a hospital.

What investigators say happened next forms the center of the case. Police said surveillance footage showed the younger suspect firing multiple rounds at the victim before both suspects ran from the area. Louisville Metro Police later said detectives with the department’s Non-Fatal Shooting Unit arrested Davis and the 13-year-old on Tuesday, March 24. The victim was expected to survive, according to police statements carried by Louisville television stations. The exact number of shots fired has not been publicly detailed, and police had not released a fuller account of what started the fight before the gun was used. Authorities also had not publicly described any prior relationship among the three boys.

The shooting happened in Smoketown, a close-in Louisville neighborhood east of downtown where South Shelby Street cuts through blocks of homes, small businesses and through traffic. By late March, the case had drawn attention because of the ages involved and because police said the violence happened in broad daylight. Public reporting has centered on the alleged sequence shown on video: fight, weapon strike, separation from camera view, return, handoff and gunfire. That progression gave the case an unusually detailed early timeline compared with many street shootings, where investigators often begin with little public evidence. Even so, the publicly available record remains narrow and leaves major questions unresolved about motive, whether anyone else was present, and how the suspects and victim came together that afternoon.

The legal picture developed quickly but not perfectly evenly across outlets. Louisville Metro Police said Davis was charged with attempted murder, complicity to first-degree assault and complicity to second-degree assault, while some later reports described jail records listing murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault. The 13-year-old suspect was reported to face attempted murder and assault-related charges. Davis was scheduled for arraignment on March 25, and one later account said he pleaded not guilty. Juvenile proceedings involving the younger suspect were not laid out publicly in the same detail, which is common because court access is often more limited in cases involving children. Police have said the investigation remains ongoing, leaving room for charges to be amended as prosecutors review evidence.

The case turned an ordinary Friday afternoon block into a crime scene that drew emergency responders, detectives and public attention. Surveillance footage, rather than eyewitness interviews alone, appears to be the key early evidence tying the allegations together. Police have not publicly described any statement from Davis or from the juvenile suspect, and no defense account was available in the early reports. What has been made public instead is a stark accusation: that an older teen armed a younger one during a confrontation with another child. As the case moved from the street to the courtroom, the victim’s survival became one of the most important immediate facts, shaping how the public understood both the severity of the injuries and the stakes of the prosecution.

As of the latest public reports, both suspects had been arrested, the victim was alive in the hospital, and the next milestone was the court process following Davis’ March 25 arraignment and any later prosecutorial review of the charges.

Author note: Last updated April 16, 2026.