In an unprovoked attack that shattered a quiet evening at a Lafayette, Indiana laundromat, 35-year-old Keith Ford lost his life. The tragic event unfolded on December 5, 2024, at the Lafayette Laundry on South Street, where Ford and other patrons were going about their evening chores. A man, later identified as 73-year-old Louis McGlothlin of Lincoln, Nebraska, entered the establishment and, without any apparent motive, began shooting.
Ford was fatally wounded in the attack and was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The assailant, McGlothlin, had driven from his home in Nebraska to Lafayette on the day of the shooting. After firing multiple shots inside the laundromat, which also wounded a 32-year-old woman and a 30-year-old man, McGlothlin exited the building and turned the gun on himself. The Tippecanoe County Coroner later confirmed that McGlothlin died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, ruling his death a suicide. Both of the other victims survived the attack.
In the wake of the shooting, investigators diligently searched for a connection between McGlothlin and his victims but found none. The Lafayette Police Department stated that there was no evidence to suggest that McGlothlin knew Ford or the other individuals he shot. Surveillance footage from the laundromat captured the chilling moments of the attack, showing McGlothlin entering and opening fire. An investigation into McGlothlin's background revealed that he held a belief that people in Lafayette were controlling his mind, a detail discovered from recordings found at his Nebraska home. The senseless act of violence left a community in shock and a family mourning the profound loss of Keith Ford.
