RIP Kris Lewis
Rest In Power, Kris Smith. Another inspired Black life cut short too soon due to violence. Smith was a protest leader and activist in Louisville.
“On Friday, Kris Smith was shot and killed in the 200 block of North 26th Street, according to a chaplain who helped identify his body.
His death is one of more than 150 homicides in Louisville this year, a number that has blown past the city's previous record of 117 homicides in 2016.
Smith was from Louisville’s West End, and he grew up in deep poverty, he previously told The Courier Journal.
He got into trouble with the law at age 15 when, along with his mother, he shoplifted food from Kroger. He bounced around group and foster homes, he said, and at age 18, he sold imitation crack cocaine — a chopped up white candle — which landed him in jail for 10 years after the people he'd deceived accused him of robbery and assault.
Years after he was released, in 2015, he was on his way to a convenience store when two men with guns and bandanas covering their faces began shooting into a crowd. He shot one of them, not fatally, ending the dangerous situation. A police detective later called him a “hero” for his actions, as Smith recalled.
Still, because he was a felon and illegally had a weapon, Smith ended up spending 3 ½ years in jail and penitentiaries. But in 2020, he said he didn’t regret it — because he’d saved lives.
“I’d do it again,” Smith said.
Smith had recently been a prominent presence at protests, often livestreaming his thoughts. His footage from the night West End barbecue stand owner David McAtee was killed was used by national and international outlets, such as The New York Times and Washington Post.
He'd found a family in fellow protesters. And in the last year, he'd started a business — Family Ties Security Group — and an organization to mentor kids in Louisville, called the Louisville Phoenix Initiative. His hope, he said, was to prevent crime and violence through education.
“I’m trying to get these printers and stuff,” he said last month, “so I can get these kids to start printing off their T-shirts and making their own T-shirts to sell, instead of selling drugs. You can’t say you want people to quit selling drugs and get off the street if you don’t give them anything to do to keep money in their pockets.”
Smith was known by many for his innovative thinking, as well as his selflessness and wit.”
(From https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2020/12/11/louisville-protest-leader-kris-smith-shot-and-killed-friday/6511515002/?fbclid=IwAR1oCer_Y3_oZVm6uM8SIyxXG1DZ1q7kOzoOZngDa7qE1rJH9a-YocMeQXQ)
