Carjackings are up in Louisville amid discord downtown. Feds are working with LMPD to help

Louisville Courier Journal

In July 2019, there were four carjackings reported in Louisville.

This July, there were more than 30.

It's an alarming increase that demands special attention, U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman said Thursday.

In response, Coleman has announced a new federal task force combining local, state and national law enforcement officials that will prosecute carjacking as a federal crime.

"If you carjack in Jefferson County, we are going to take you federal," Coleman said in a press conference at the U.S. Attorney's Office. "We're going to take you through the federal system and ultimately take you to federal prison."

A federal carjacking charge can carry up to 15 years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, with an additional seven years if a firearm is brandished and 10 years if a gun is fired.

The tumult enveloping Louisville — many businesses are still closed by the coronavirus and protests over the police killing of Breonna Taylor are inching toward their third month — has upended law enforcement officials in every department, interim Louisville Metro Police Chief Robert Schroeder and Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine said.

Several businesses remain boarded up after protests sparked looting in the first few days in late May. Since then, the Breonna Taylor protests have been peaceful with little to no property damage.

LMPD staffing is "obviously challenged at this time," Schroeder said, with some officers leaving the department and many others spending more time responding to the protests, which have been a consistent presence downtown and have at times spread to other parts of the city.

Cases have been slow to move through the court system for several months, Wine added, because of the coronavirus pandemic.

That, in turn, is giving criminals an opening that is sending violent crime, including carjackings, climbing, officials said. They're occurring all over the city and have turned into a significant public threat, they said.

The number of reported violent robberies of vehicles in Louisville has risen with the homicide rate — 95 have been reported in the city already in 2020, according to Coleman, after 91 were reported in all of 2019.

While the U.S. attorney stopped short of saying the two were related, Coleman said carjackings usually involve at least one firearm, so "it's just a matter of time before we have more families, more individuals, that are killed or injured."

Downtown Louisville is in the midst of a civil disturbance, which plays a role, Coleman said.

Peaceful protesters have a right to be there, and law enforcement officials are committed to protecting them, but "there's a real concern" that some are exploiting lawful protests and the "heaviness" that's overtaken downtown to engage in criminal activity, he said.

Windows remain boarded in several Louisville buildings downtown, including West Market and Fifth streets.

"We're so used to joking in Louisville about the colors of blue and red, and the contrast you see," Coleman said, surrounded by officials from other law enforcement agencies. "Well, there's a new color you see in downtown Louisville — it's brown. It's the color of the boards that are over just about every pane of glass in downtown Louisville.

"I would encourage people who live in this community and live in this commonwealth to come downtown and see what's become of their downtown. I can pledge that those on my left and my right will do everything in our power to protect those who are protesting, and everything in our power to send those who cross that line and put protesters at risk to prison outside of this community."

This new task force will take pressure off of LMPD, Coleman said, by getting other agencies involved.

Kentucky State Police and the U.S. Attorney's Office will be on the team, along with Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives officials, the FBI, LMPD, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and Homeland Security Investigations.

"What makes this different is this new initiative will have agents and officers working side by side to prevent violent crime versus enterprise small group conspiracies," said Robert Brown, FBI Louisville special agent in charge. "… It's time to help each other build neighborhoods where kids and adults and teens can feel safe and secure from crime."

Some of the recent carjackings, Coleman said, appear to be people taking advantage of the discord surrounding the ongoing protests.

Read this:Louisville gun violence on a record pace in 2020

He referred to one incident in early June in which a woman and her friend stopped to see what was happening at a demonstration along Bardstown Road before agreeing to give a ride to three men who eventually forced the victims out of the car and attempted to take their phones.

A separate carjacking was reported to LMPD this week, early Tuesday morning on Shelbyville Road.

A reporter also inquired about the death of David Boggs, a Prospect man who was shot and killed near Shawnee Park on Monday in an incident many on social media had attributed as a botched carjacking. Schroeder would not release many details about an ongoing investigation but said Boggs' death appeared to be "a robbery that went bad."

Carjackings are classified in LMPD's records as robberies, he added later, though the department has codes to specifically track violent car thefts.

The violence has to stop, Coleman said, and he had a message for those behind the wave of carjackings.

"We're bringing significant resources to take you out of the community," he said. "Our goal is to prevent. Our goal is to be proactive."

Lucas Aulbach can be reached at laulbach@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4649 or on Twitter @LucasAulbach. Support strong local journalism and subscribe: courier-journal.com/lucasa.