In the late hours of a Friday night in Louisville, Kentucky, on September 18, 2020, a tragedy unfolded that would abruptly end the life of 24-year-old Steven Matthew Head and two other men. The setting was Bungalow Joe's Bar and Grill, a local family restaurant, where the evening took a devastating turn. Without any apparent altercation or warning, a man named Michael E. Rhynes Jr.
approached the table where Head was sitting with two other patrons, Toreon Jermaine Hudson, 26, and William Scott Smallwood, 48, and opened fire at point-blank range.
Louisville Metro Police officers responded to the scene on Beulah Church Road around 11:30 p.m. Hudson and Smallwood were pronounced dead at the restaurant. Steven Matthew Head was critically injured and rushed to University Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. The violent and seemingly random nature of the attack left the community and the restaurant owner in a state of shock and disbelief.
Shortly after the shooting, just after midnight, police located and arrested 33-year-old Michael E. Rhynes Jr. crawling in the brush near the restaurant. His clothing matched the description of the suspect captured on video surveillance, and he was found in possession of a handgun that was later linked to the shell casings found at the crime scene.
In May 2023, Michael Rhynes pleaded guilty to three counts of murder for the deaths of Steven Head, Toreon Hudson, and William Smallwood. This plea deal allowed him to avoid a potential death penalty. Subsequently, in August 2023, a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge sentenced Rhynes to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years for each of the three murder counts. The motive for the tragic and senseless act of violence that cut short the lives of three men, including Steven Matthew Head, remains unclear.
