iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin spoke out against gun violence in his home state in a Facebook video posted Monday that decries the recent killing of a 7-year-old boy who was struck by a stray bullet while inside his home.
Bevin said that the 7-year-old’s death — the 49th homicide in Louisville this year — exposes a disregard for human life.
“We’ve got a huge cultural problem here in Kentucky, we truly do. And in America for that matter,” Gov. Bevin said in his Facebook message. “The lack of appreciation for human life, the disregard for human life from beginning to end, is becoming increasingly evident as we see people who use guns as toys, guns as a way of expressing their emotion and their anger at things.”
The governor, who is a supporter of gun-ownership rights, said he will announce a solution next week to combat violence in Kentucky communities.
“It has nothing to do with spending more money,” he said. “It has nothing to do with more police on the streets. It has everything to do about engaging you as members of our communities.”
Dequante Hobbs Jr. was killed Sunday after being shot in the head by a stray bullet fired in a nearby altercation. The boy was struck as he played on his iPad and ate cake at his kitchen table, police said.
Relatives in the home did CPR until police and EMS arrived, according to the Associated Press. No one else was injured in the shooting, but Hobbs was later pronounced dead after being taken to a local hospital.
“They call themselves men, but men don’t go around shooting somebody over petty stuff,” the 7-year-old’s grandmother, Tonya Hobbs Gough, told the AP Monday. “You’re not a man,” she added. “You’re a child if you’ve got to use a gun to do anything.”
Louisville Metro Police Department tell ABC News that the case is still under investigation and no arrests have been made.
“We had a 7-year-old who fell victim to the senseless violence that’s going on here in our city,” Louisville Metro Police spokeswoman Lt. Emily McKinley said, according to the AP. “If this doesn’t wake anybody up, then I don’t know what will.”
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