“I look at him four months later… and all I can say is how.”; Kurt Smith on son’s recovery

Lexington, Ky. (WTVQ) — Just four months ago, 25-year-old Jayson Smith was shot while working as a bouncer at Silks in downtown Lexington.

Jayson’s father, Kurt, spoke about the shooting and his son’s recovery.

“On the morning of October 1st, around 1:40 in the morning he broke up a fight outside and came back in,” said Kurt. “I think it was the guy who got beat up, came back in and Jayson saw him reach in a fanny pack and pull out the gun and start shooting. Jayson’s immediate instinct was to go right at him and disarm the guy.”

Jayson was shot in the upper right arm, the bullet then traveled across and came out through the left side of his neck.

Kurt says doing something like this isn’t new for Jayson. He recounted a few times Jayson dropped everything he was doing to help someone in need.

“Right after he got shot, a couple of days in or something like that, it was just me and him in his trauma unit room. He looked at me and said ‘Dad I couldn’t have lived with myself if I had run away or hid when I saw that gun come out’.”

On Thursday night, Jayson was honored during a council meeting. Kurt says this filled him with pride.

“I got all starry-eyed and started to tear up. I knew they were going to give him a proclamation, I had no idea they were going to call it Evan Jayson Smith Day.”‘

Kurt says they expect Jayson to make a full recovery.

And even though Jayson went through something traumatic, Kurt says Jayson has tried to stay positive.

“I look at him four months later, Thursday night was exactly four months, and all I can say is how.”

A GoFundMe has been created to help Jayson.