James Pendleton, a 22-year-old man from Louisville, Kentucky, was killed on the night of Saturday, April 18, 2026, inside a home in the Park DuValle neighborhood. Louisville Metro Police said officers were called around 9:30 p.m. to the 1600 block of Louis Coleman Jr. Drive after a shooting was reported. When they arrived, they found Pendleton inside the residence, already dead from gunshot wounds.
The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office later identified him and said he died from multiple gunshot wounds.
The case moved quickly from a death investigation into a homicide arrest. Police said the shooting happened inside the Park DuValle home, but the public reports did not describe what led up to the gunfire, whether Pendleton and the suspect knew each other, or what dispute, if any, preceded the shooting. In the first public report, investigators were still asking anyone with information to contact LMPD’s anonymous tip line or submit information through the department’s online crime tip portal.
By the next day, April 19, 2026, Louisville Metro Police announced that they had arrested Gianni Fortney in connection with Pendleton’s death. Fortney, who was 20, turned himself in at an LMPD National Prescription Drug Take Back Day event, where officers took him into custody and turned him over to the department’s Homicide Unit. Police said Fortney was the alleged suspect in the fatal shooting.
Fortney was charged with one count of murder and two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment. Booking records also listed the murder charge under Kentucky statute 507.020 and wanton endangerment charges under 508.060, including one count described as first-degree wanton endangerment involving discharge of a firearm. Public reporting and booking records available so far show an arrest and charges, but no trial outcome or conviction has been reported in the sources reviewed.
