An uninvited guest opened fire at what was meant to be a 21st birthday party, killing four and hurting three more, according to police in Kentucky.
A group of partygoers called the Florence police just before 3 a.m. on Saturday to report an active shooter in a home on Ridgecrest Drive.
“When they got there, they could still hear shots being fired,” Chief Jeff Mallery told reporters at a hearing.
Mallory says that police found two bodies on the front yard and five more inside the house. Four of the people who were hurt were declared dead at the scene, and three others were rushed to a nearby hospital in Cincinnati. People at the scene told police that the shooter was 21-year-old Chase Garvey and gave them details about his car. Mallery said an officer saw the car and chased Garvey after he ran away from a traffic stop. When Garvey went off the road and crashed into a ditch on Dale Heimbrock Way near Hicks Pike, the chase was over. Police found Garvey with a gunshot wound that he had caused himself. First rescuers took him to the hospital, but doctors there said he was dead.
Mallery said that the three victims who are still alive should fully heal. He said that Shane Miller and Hayden Rybicki, both 20, were killed, along with Delaney Eary, 19, and Melissa Parrett, 44. Mallory told me that the party was for Parrett’s son. It’s not clear why the shooting happened, but Mallory did say that Garvey wasn’t asked to the party.
While speaking to the press, Mallory was moved to tears and said that his thoughts were with the families of the victims and the officers who rushed to the scene.
He said, “We’ve never dealt with this before.” “This is the first time there has been a mass shooting in Florence. I know it’s been talked about all over the country.”
People in the neighborhood were shocked, even some who had been to the party earlier that night.
“We talked and made memories while sitting in the driveway, but around 12:30 I decided to go home.” Leah Moore told WXIX in Cincinnati, “I live right there.” “For sure, I would have been a part of this tragedy if I had stayed a little longer.”
WXIX said that Garvey was caught in 2021 for sexually assaulting a girl who was 13 years old. He is said to have driven to the girl’s house after meeting her on Snapchat. Police say the woman told them she didn’t want to do anything sexual, but Garvey held her down and made her have sex with him. He pleaded guilty to illegal dealings with a child, according to records from the Kentucky Department of Corrections. The judge gave him five years of probation.
It was also nice to remember Parrett for people who lived close by.
The man’s words to the TV station were, “She was truly, truly sunlight in a dark room.”