TRAGIC

Kris Smith Is the Second Louisville Protest Leader to Be Murdered in Three Weeks

Kris Smith, 42, mentored children and livestreamed footage from protests against the police killing of Breonna Taylor.

Kris Smith, a 42-year-old active in the Louisville, Kentucky protest movement, was shot in the city on Friday. Smith, who was a prominent voice among demonstrators marching to raise awareness for Breonna Taylor’s killing, is the second social justice activist to be shot in less than three weeks. In late November, an activist named Travis Nagdy was also killed. Smith ran a security company and mentored youth via an organization he founded called Louisville Phoenix Initiative, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. He streamed footage from Louisville protests, and captured the killing of David McAtee, a restaurant owner who was shot by police in June. There are currently no suspects in either Smith or Nagdy’s deaths. According to the Courier-Journal, there have been more than 150 homicides in Louisville this year, a grim new record.