Saturday afternoon in southwest Louisville turned into a nightmare this past weekend when a young man’s life was cut short on a residential street. Just as families were settling into their weekend routines, the sound of gunfire echoed through the Pleasure Ridge Park neighborhood, leaving 20-year-old Milton Ritchie dead and a 15-year-old girl behind bars. It is the kind of tragedy that sticks with a community, especially when those involved are so young.
The chaos started around 4:14 p.m. on the 3000 block of Fordhaven Road. When Louisville Metro Police officers pulled up to the scene, they didn’t just find a victim; they found a car that had veered off the pavement and crashed into a ditch. Lying just outside that vehicle was Ritchie, who had been shot multiple times. Despite the quick arrival of emergency responders, the injuries were just too severe, and he was pronounced dead right there on the road.
Detectives spent the next few days piecing together what happened, and by Monday evening, they had a suspect in custody. Because of her age, police aren’t releasing her name, but they confirmed a 15-year-old girl is now facing heavy charges: complicity to murder and complicity to robbery. It’s a heavy weight for someone not even old enough to drive legally, and it has left many in the city wondering how a robbery could escalate so quickly into a fatal shooting.
The scene on Fordhaven Road was particularly haunting for those who witnessed the aftermath. Witnesses told police there was actually a large crowd in the area when the shots rang out. It wasn’t a lonely alleyway or a deserted park; it was a neighborhood setting where people were present. This detail has led the Homicide Unit to lean heavily on the public, asking anyone with cellphone video or home security footage to come forward and help fill in the gaps.
For the Ritchie family, the grief is unimaginable. Milton was just 20, a stage of life where most people are just starting to figure out who they want to be. Instead of planning a future, his loved ones are now forced to navigate the arrival of the Christmas season while planning a funeral. The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office officially identified him shortly after the incident, confirming that his life ended due to those multiple gunshot wounds.
The Pleasure Ridge Park community is feeling the sting of this loss, too. Neighbors have described the incident as deeply disturbing, noting the trend of youth violence that seems to be creeping closer to home. It’s a sobering reminder of the volatility that can occur when guns and young people mix. Many are calling for more than just arrests; they want to see real changes in how the city prevents these kinds of tragedies before they start.
Right now, the investigation is far from over. LMPD spokesperson Sgt. Matthew Sanders noted that detectives are still working the case to see if anyone else was involved in the robbery or the shooting. While one teenager is in custody, the questions of “why” and “how” still linger over Fordhaven Road. For now, a neighborhood is left mourning a young man gone too soon and grappling with the reality of a 15-year-old girl facing a lifetime of consequences.
