Sheldon S. Shafer, Mark Boxley and Andy Wolfson

The Courier-Journal;

The teen mob violence that spawned at least 17 assaults and robberies Saturday night in downtown Louisville may have been fermenting for nearly a week — and be connected to the fatal stabbing of a 14-year old on a TARC bus.

A TARC spokeswoman said Monday that a horde of teens attempted to storm a bus at 34th and Broadway on March 18, the same day Me'Mequale Offutt died of his injuries after he was stabbed in the heart two days earlier during a scuffle on a TARC bus.

A few hours later March 18, teenagers attacked another bus at 38th and Broadway and pelted it with rocks, said TARC spokeswoman Kay Stewart. Both buses were damaged, and both attacks were reported to police, she said.

A local businessman, Riyad Fallheen, said as many as 50 to 60 youths gathered every night last week outside his Shorty's Food Mart, 3501 W. Broadway. He said said he reported it to Louisville Metro Police after they harassed his customers.

Police Chief Steve Conrad did not mention the earlier attacks during a news conference Sunday, where he said that Saturday's wave of mayhem was "not common for downtown" or "any neighborhood in our city."

Asked Monday by reporters why police didn't respond sooner to the mass of 200 young people in Waterfront Park, he said: "I don't have the answer to that question. It is not unusual to have several thousand people in that park. I don't know that the people who were there were there to cause problems. Once we starting having problems, officers did respond to the problems that were there."

Police arrested one man Saturday night, Je'Rece M. Archie, 18, and charged him with carrying a concealed deadly weapon and unlawful transaction with a minor. He is being held on a $5,000 bond.

Louisville Metro police spokesman Dwight Mitchell said the department is exploring whether those crowds and the attacks on the TARC buses were connected to either the violence Saturday night that left six people hospitalized, or the stabbing in which MeMequale was killed and a 13-year-old girl who also was stabbed survived.

Anthony Rene Allen, a convicted sex offender with a history of arrests for violent and belligerent outbursts, is charged with murder in MeMequale's death.

"We're looking at it, but we don't know for sure," Mitchell said.

Mitchell said the department immediately added additional personnel to the West Broadway corridor after TARC notified it of the two March 18 attacks.

Mitchell said there was another incident at about 10 p.m. Sunday where several juveniles boarded a TARC bus at 26th and Broadway and demanded money from a passenger, who was also a minor. He was stabbed and suffered non-life threatening injuries, Mitchell said. He said police are investigating whether that incident is related to the others.

Christopher 2X, a community activist who has worked with MeMequale's family, said there was chatter on social media about a gathering at Waterfront Park Saturday to release balloons during a memorial service for the boy, but 2X said it is impossible to know how many of the 200 teens at the park were there for the memorial before they set off on what police described as a rampage.

As Louisville police Monday continued to pursue leads into the spree of assaults and robberies involving both black and white victims, Conrad said the department is considering adding horse and bike patrols in Waterfront Park in response to the violence.

Mayor Greg Fischer said he would work with churches and community centers to find activities for teens as the weather warms up.

"We will try to reach out to the kids who are lost and encourage them not to fall into this group thing," Fischer said.

He said he planned a 9:30 a.m. meeting Tuesday with his neighborhood safety team, which is convened after shootings and other violent incidents.

The attacks occurred as early as 7 p.m., when Jim Henry, 61, was atacked by teens on the Big Four Bridge, according to his wife, Jean. At about 7:45 p.m. a man at the Big Four Bridge stepped in to keep a 13-year-old girl from being assaulted and robbed, and the mob turned on him, badly injuring him, Conrad said.

From there a group of up to 80 teens started moving through downtown, attacking people on the way, he said.

Later, at First and Jefferson, a woman, her husband and their five children were in a car outside Bader's Food Mart when the woman was punched in the head. The victim, who was not identified, was taken to University of Louisville Hospital for treatment.

Moments earlier, dozens of youth had stormed into the store, and one employee reported being struck as he tried to hold them back.

"It's crazy when it starts," manager Adam Bader said Monday night of the store's surveillance footage. "The most important thing is the public safety. Hopefully we can finally put a stop to this kind of thing, finally."

Police arrived and dispersed the crowd, Conrad said, but part of it reformed at Third and Chestnut streets, where another man was attacked and was taken to a hospital.

Another mob attacked a man at Fifth Street and Broadway and another person at Sixth Street and Broadway, Conrad said.

Conrad tried to reassure the public that the city is still safe and that police have stepped up their presence downtown and around the Waterfront Park, although the Rev. Kevin Cosby, senior pastor at St. Stephen Church and president of Simmons College of Kentucky, said "beefed up police force is not the answer to the wilding cases.

"The answer is beefed up investment in west Louisville," he said.