| Police see the shootings as related, two teenagers, 14 and 16 suspected.
LEXINGTON-Three shootings in three days and three Latinos hurt in the leg after suspects demanded cash. The wave of shootings seems to be showing a trend pointing to two teenagers, 14 and 16, as the perpetrators.
The third shooting in three days near Lexington's Winburn neighborhood sent a man to the hospital with a bullet wound in the leg Tuesday.
The victim, who was not named by police, was confronted by two teens with a gun in a breezeway at an apartment complex at 1840 McCullough Drive.
According to Lexington Police, the teens demanded cash, and then one of them shot him once with a small-caliber handgun. The two then ran toward Winburn Drive. Their descriptions matched descriptions of two teens involved in other recent shootings, police said
The victim was taken to University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center with what was thought to be a non-life threatening injury.
“The Latino community here is very afraid. In my opinion, this is an attack on us, Latinos. As Hispanic, we work and carry cash and we have become the victims. It is a cat and mouse game out there; and clearly, in this case, we have become the mouse”, commented Ervin Altúzar, Winburn resident for almost a decade.
On Sunday morning, a man was shot in the leg in the parking lot of an apartment complex at 522 Hollow Creek Road, near Russell Cave Road and East New Circle. Two people demanded money from him at gunpoint and fired a single round after he said he didn't have any cash, police said.
The streak continued yesterday Monday in the afternoon, when another man was shot in the parking lot of the apartments at 500 Hollow Creek Road. That man was outside working on his car when two people approached. He, too, was shot in the leg.
It appears that the shooters are targeting Latino men, police said. All of the victims have been Latino, and all of the wounds have been in the leg.
“My wife wants to move out of the neighborhood. In my case, I was also a victim of an assault with a beating included. I really don’t even know what to think now with these new incidents”, added Altuzar.
Witnesses described the shooters Tuesday as between 14 and 16 years old, according to police. The police said it would work with school officials to pull records of students who have been skipping class.
That would provide police with a list of names to start working with, meanwhile the anxiety in the Hispanic community in Winburn keeps growing.
Anyone with information is asked to call Lexington police at (859) 258-3600.
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