Eleven days after gunfire tore through a narrow Russell neighborhood alley and left four people injured, Louisville police have made an arrest. James A. Ditto Jr., 29, was taken into custody on the morning of Tuesday, September 22, in connection with the September 11 shooting that wounded a teenager and three adults in the 1000 block of Esquire Alley.
According to WLKY, Ditto has been charged with second-degree assault, wanton endangerment, and possession of a handgun by a convicted felon. The shooting happened shortly before 11:35 p.m. that Friday, and responding LMPD First Division officers and members of the department's Summer Task Force arrived to find what police described as a “chaotic and active scene,” according to WDRB.
Louisville Metro EMS transported all four victims to UofL Hospital for emergency treatment, per WHAS11. The injured included a 53-year-old woman, a 16-year-old boy, and two men, ages 28 and 29, all of whom suffered non-life-threatening injuries. LMPD's Non-Fatal Shooting Unit is now leading the investigation into what led to the gunfire.
Same Alley, Second Shooting in Weeks
This was not the first time gunfire had erupted on that stretch of Esquire Alley this year. The September 11 shooting marked the second violent incident on the same block in less than two months, following a July 25 shooting that led to the arrest of a 43-year-old man on assault and handgun charges. In the wake of the more recent shooting, the same Non-Fatal Shooting Squad directed any witnesses who were present in the alley during the gunfire to submit information through LMPD's anonymous Crime Tip Line at 502-574-LMPD or its online portal, the station's report noted.
The shooting also landed at a strange moment for West Louisville law enforcement. It occurred just before federal and local agencies announced the results of Operation Silent Hammer, a 60-day ATF-led undercover operation that seized 160 firearms and produced 52 indictments, with a heavy focus on the Russell neighborhood, as Hoodline previously reported.
A Neighborhood Under Strain
The Esquire Alley shooting is one of several violent incidents that have rattled Russell in recent months. The neighborhood has also seen an un-indicted June fatal shooting near Elliott Park and a September 18 double shooting on West Market Street, according to Hoodline's earlier coverage. Those cases sit alongside a homicide in a Russell alleyway that recently ended in a 7.5-year sentence for the man convicted in the death of Officer Michael Wehdah, and a separate case in which a grand jury declined to indict two men in a Russell man's killing, leaving his family without answers.
What Ditto Could Face
Ditto's three charges each carry significant weight under Kentucky law. Second-degree assault under Kentucky Revised Statutes § 508.020 is a Class C felony punishable by five to ten years in prison, according to the Farra Law Firm. Possession of a handgun by a convicted felon is normally a Class D felony, but state law elevates it to a Class C felony carrying the same five-to-ten-year range when the weapon is a handgun, per the Bouldin Law Firm.
The wanton endangerment charge carries its own added weight following the 2024 passage of House Bill 5, known as the Safer Kentucky Act. Under that law and Kentucky Revised Statutes § 508.060, first-degree wanton endangerment involving the discharge of a firearm is now classified as a Class C violent felony, subject to mandatory minimum time served before parole eligibility, according to the Fleenor Law Firm.
Court arraignment details and a motive for the shooting have not been released. LMPD's Non-Fatal Shooting Squad's investigation remains open as it works to determine exactly what set off the gunfire that sent four people, including a teenager, to the hospital in a neighborhood already grappling with repeated violence.
