Woman Fatally Shot While Walking Student to Louisville Bus Stop: 'Lives Are Forever Changed' By Brenton Blanchet

A woman was fatally shot while walking a student near a Louisville, Ky., bus stop this week as police continue to search for a suspected shooter.

On Wednesday, Aug. 13, around 8 a.m. local time, someone fired shots near “several people” walking to school and bus stops near the area of West Chestnut Street and 11th Street in the city’s Russell neighborhood. The location is near the Chestnut Street Family YMCA, Coleridge-Taylor Montessori Elementary School and Central High School, according to Fox affiliate WDRB.

One woman was shot while walking with a student and later died from her injuries at the University of Louisville Hospital, the Louisville Metro Police Department announced.

LMPD Chief Paul Humphrey told reporters during a Wednesday news conference that witnesses provided the name of a potential suspect and additional footage. The LMPD then arrested a 15-year-old boy in connection with the shooting; however, Humphrey said police later determined the boy was “not the suspect in this shooting.”

The LMPD, which did not share the name of the victim, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for further information on Thursday.

The teenager has since been released, as the LMPD shared a later description of a Black teenager wearing a red hoodie and sweatpants. Humphrey said the new suspect presented a “clear and definitive danger” and that authorities wanted him in custody “as soon as possible.”

The LMPD shared images of the teen in a red hoodie in an update on Facebook. The department wrote that authorities had detained the initial suspect but “determined this person was there but did not pull the trigger” following an interview and reviewing more footage.

“It is unacceptable that people simply trying to go to school must fear for their safety because of a teenager who clearly has no regard for others, especially innocent children,” the LMPD said in a statement.

The suspect in the red hoodie, later shown in the images, was “at the bus stop where a homicide occurred,” according to the LMPD.

The latest shooting took place less than a week after a 15-year-old boy was arrested after a bus-stop shooting on Aug. 7, during the first day of class for Jefferson County Public Schools. According to CBS affiliate WLKY, the teen was charged with 33 counts of first-degree wanton endangerment and one count of possession of a handgun by a minor.

As the chief shared at the LMPD’s news conference, officers were present at the bus stop every day after that initial shooting until Tuesday, and were not there for Wednesday’s shooting. “The officers made a decision today. Clearly, I wish they had been there,” Humphrey added. “They made a decision based on the fact that the conflict last week, we had already had one of the people involved. We thought that conflict was over with, but I definitely wish we had officers out there this morning still.”

Bruce Sweeny, a man familiar with the victim, told WDRB that he knew the family for “quite some time.”

“Last time I heard, she was doing the same thing that she does every day, bringing her child to school. To a safe place,” he shared.

Humphrey said that “lives are forever changed because of incidents like this,” for both victims and witnesses, per WDRB. “This is a traumatic event for so many people that changes neighborhoods for the worse. This is the second time in a week that we’re talking about this, and it’s absolutely pathetic.”