Louisville doctor who helped victims in 2 mass shootings speaks in DC at gun violence prevention task force

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WTVQ) — Dr. Jason Smith, whose voice was heard at nearly every press conference following two mass shootings in the same week in Louisville, spoke at a gun violence prevention task force event in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

Dr. Smith is the University of Louisville Health’s chief medical officer. He and his team aided not only the victims of the Old National Bank and Chickasaw Park shootings but nearly 20 other shooting victims in between.

“The simple fact of the matter is that a mass shooting on Monday and a mass shooting that occurred on Saturday, I had 18 other gunshot wounds in my community that week,” Dr. Smith said. “I can pray and ask all of you no matter what side of this issue you are on to step forward and begin the dialogue to talk about this.”

Following the April 10 shooting at Old National Bank, Dr. Smith gave emotional testimony of the strain gun violence is having in his hospital.

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, Rep. Morgan McGarvey (who joined Dr. Smith for the speech during the task force’s event) and Sen. David Yates have all called for additional help for their community.

Greenberg, a shooting survivor himself, pleaded for help from the state’s legislature and Congress to do “more than we’ve already done” at a press conference the day after the bank shooting that claimed five lives and wounded eight more. He said while long-term action is being taken, the city needs help from lawmakers in both Frankfort and D.C. for quicker action.

He requested the following moving forward:

• For local decisions to be made to address local issues
  • Greenberg is asking for Louisville to have the autonomy to deal with its “unique gun violence epidemic” compared to other Kentucky cities. He’s asking for the city to be able to enact its own policies
• For guns used in killings to be destroyed
  • Greenberg says in current Kentucky law, guns like the one used in yesterday’s mass shooting will be auctioned off and “back on the streets”
  • He’s asking for the ability to destroy guns used in killings

“This isn’t about partisan politics, this is about life and death,” he said, before finishing with a warning:

“You may think this may never happen to you…the sad truth is that no one in our city no one in our state no one in our country has that luxury anymore.”

McGarvey has repeatedly called gun violence in the United States an epidemic.

“This is an epidemic of our own choosing, and that means we have the power to stop it. We’re not giving up,” he wrote in a Twitter post yesterday.

The five killed in the bank shooting were identified as Tommy Elliott, 63; Jim Tutt, 64; Josh Barrick, 40; Juliana Farmer, 45; and Deana Eckert, 57. The two killed in the park shooting were identified as David Huff, 17; and Deaji Goodman, 28.

“I don’t know the solutions, ladies and gentlemen. I’m a doctor. My job is to put bodies back together after these tragedies. [But] I can’t heal the scars of this community,” Dr. Smith said.