In the early hours of Thanksgiving morning, November 25, 2021, the life of 15-year-old Cortez Duncan Jr. was tragically cut short in Louisville, Kentucky. The young man was fatally wounded in a shooting that unfolded in the Shawnee neighborhood. Duncan was discovered with multiple gunshot wounds in the 600 block of Hecks Lane. A second teenager was also critically injured in the incident and was found about a block away.
The investigation into the violent death of the teenager led
Louisville Metro Police to two suspects. In May 2022, two 16-year-old boys were taken into custody and charged with murder, possession of a handgun by a minor, and possession of a defaced firearm. Due to their status as juveniles, their names were not initially released to the public. The shooting spanned two scenes, beginning on Hecks Lane off River Park Drive and concluding on Dearborn Avenue in the adjacent Chickasaw neighborhood.
Further legal proceedings in July 2022 brought more clarity to the case when a grand jury indicted two teenagers, identified as Damarian Moore and Mckay Cable, both 16 years old at the time. They faced a number of charges, including two counts of complicity to murder. These charges were not only for their alleged involvement in the death of Cortez Duncan Jr. but also in connection with the fatal shooting of another teenager, 16-year-old Tyree Smith, who was killed at his school bus stop in September of the previous year. The indictments also included charges related to another shooting that occurred in March 2021.
