The Owensboro Police Department is investigating a shooting incident that took place Thursday afternoon at Kendall Perkins Park. Officials on scene said no victim was located, but one person reportedly later arrived to the hospital with an injury.
According to OPD, dispatch received information from Owensboro Health Regional Hospital at approximately 5:15 p.m. that a 20-year-old male had arrived at the Emergency Room with what appears to be a non-life-threatening injury.
According to Lt. Steve Wechtenhiser with the OPD Criminal Investigation Division, the first call came in at approximately 4:30 p.m. That caller reported hearing approximately 15 rounds of gunfire and alleged that two people were shooting at each other across the basketball courts.
Wechtenhiser said they only found indications of two shots fired — they recovered two shell casings, both from the same side of the court. He said they checked the other area thoroughly but found no evidence of shots fired from a second location.
Prior to the investigation team arriving on scene, they were reviewing video footage of the park area from city-installed cameras.
“It verified what the caller originally said about the two groups and the cars they got into and left the scene and what direction they went,” Wechtenhiser said. “The cameras verified the witnesses were being truthful, but we have no idea if there were actually 15 shots. We can say there were two.”
Wechtenhiser said the only reports were from callers who heard the shots fired, but no eyewitnesses came forward.
Detectives on scene didn’t yet know who was involved. In addition to the shell casings, detectives collected drink bottles left behind to process for DNA evidence.
Wechtenhiser said the current charge for any suspects is wanton endangerment, though that could be upgraded as more information is available.
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with additional information can call OPD at 270-687-8888, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 270-687-8484.
