Lexington Park Shooting Breaks Fragile Peace at East End Day

An 18-year-old man was arrested Sunday and charged with murder after a shooting at Charles Young Park in Lexington, Kentucky, killed 16-year-old Di’Zhon Robertson and wounded four others, including a 4-year-old child, during the East End Day community celebration.

Jametrius Griffin faces murder, assault and tampering with physical evidence charges. He was booked into the Fayette County Detention Center. Police said the four surviving victims, two children and two adults, suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The investigation continues.

Shots Fired During East End Day

Lexington police responded at about 6:48 p.m. Saturday to reports of gunfire in the 200 block of Midland Avenue. Officers already working the park event found five shooting victims. Firefighters arrived one minute later.

One victim was pronounced dead at University of Kentucky Hospital. The Fayette County Coroner’s Office later identified him as Di’Zhon Robertson, who died at 7:10 p.m. from a gunshot wound. The death was ruled a homicide. Robertson was a student at the Success Academy and had previously attended Bryan Station High School.

1. 6:48 p.m. Saturday, Police called to shots fired at Charles Young Park during East End Day.
2. 6:49 p.m., Lexington Fire Department dispatched.
3. 7:10 p.m., Di’Zhon Robertson pronounced dead at UK Hospital Emergency Room.
4. Sunday, Coroner publicly identifies Robertson; $5,000 reward announced; Griffin arrested and charged.

Police Chief Lawrence Weathers said early that there was no ongoing threat to the public. An emergency staffing plan mobilized third-shift officers. Midland Avenue stayed closed into the night as tents from the event remained up while investigators worked.

The Victims and the Park Around Them

The four injured included a 4-year-old, a 14-year-old and two adults. All were taken to a local hospital. Their conditions were described as non-life-threatening and remained unchanged through Sunday.

Charles Young Park sits in Lexington’s East End neighborhood. The adjacent community center, established in 1934, was the city’s first indoor public recreational facility for African Americans. The park itself was only the second outdoor public recreational site available to Black residents under segregation. Both are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

• Large playground, open green space and paved multi-use court
• Splash! sprayground opened in 2023, linking to the Town Branch Commons trail
• Community center with gym, youth programs, Police Activities League and senior activities
• Named for Col. Charles Young, the pioneering Black Army officer born into slavery in Kentucky

City pages describe the historic Charles Young Park facilities as a landmark that still anchors East End identity and civic gathering. Council Member Tyler Morton had promoted East End Day earlier that Saturday as a chance for neighbors to celebrate connection at the park.

Eight Inches From the Gunfire

Devine Carama, director of ONE Lexington, the city’s gun-violence initiative, was at the event. He described trying to shield four young people when shots rang out.

My heart is broken. This evening we had a shooting at the park with multiple victims and one fighting for his life. While trying to keep four young people covered and safe during the shooting, a person eight inches from me was shot tonight…. It’s been 20 years since I’ve been THAT close to gunfire. Opening fire in a peaceful event, broad daylight, with women and children present is unacceptable! What part of the game is this?

Carama, writing on Facebook that night, praised community members who performed CPR and carried the wounded child. He named Corey Dunn, Larry Lamont Johnson, Terry Dumphord, Evany Romero and Quidarius McCoy among those who acted immediately. He said the East End had never seen anything like this at its annual gathering and urged against retaliation: “An eye for an eye just leaves the whole community blind.”

He also called for trauma specialists to help set up support early the next week and told victims’ families to let the process run its course.

Why the Numbers Made It Land Harder

Lexington had been marking real progress against the exact problem that struck the park. ONE Lexington tracks gun violence among youth and young adults ages 10-29. By mid-2025 the city was already well below multi-year averages.

• 60 percent decline in overall gun violence over the prior four years, per ONE Lexington
• 150 consecutive days without a criminal homicide as of early July 2026, a stretch Carama called unmatched in city archives
• 42 residents ages 10-29 injured or killed by gunfire in 2025 to date of one report, versus a 4-year average of 83
• 10 gun homicides in that age group versus a 4-year average of 15

Carama had framed the long quiet stretch as a sign of hope that required continued vigilance, not celebration. The city uses a public-health model drawn from Cure Violence and its own P.I.E.R. framework of prevention, intervention, enforce-and-engage, and restoration. The ONE Lexington gun violence strategy coordinates government and neighborhood partners. Its All Hearts on Deck current plan emphasizes upstream work with those most at risk.

Saturday’s gunfire at a family event therefore cut against the very trend the programs were designed to extend. Crowd reaction on X and local threads quickly noted both the staffing emergency and the fact that a daylight community day had been the setting.

Officials Refuse to Let One Night Rewrite the Neighborhood

At a Sunday press conference held at the Charles Young Center, Chief Weathers and Mayor Linda Gorton stressed there was no direct threat to the public at large. Weathers said the shooting did not appear random but declined most investigative details.

“This does not define the East End,” Weathers said. He described the neighborhood as a community of love and family and said events like East End Day would continue.

Mayor Gorton expressed condolences and said the city and police were committed to solving the case quickly. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, speaking at a Democratic Party dinner about 1.5 miles away when the shots were fired, told the room early that five people had been hurt and one was likely dead. He asked the audience to keep the families in their thoughts and later tied the incident to broader gun-violence politics.

• Weathers: no ongoing public threat; community events will continue
• Gorton: condolences and rapid investigation pledge
• Beshear: announced the shooting from the nearby dinner stage
• Council Member Emma Curtis: confirmed emergency mobilization plan
• Youth Peace & Justice Foundation (Uvalde Foundation for Kids): $5,000 reward for information leading to identification or arrest of the suspect(s)

City officials urged children and families who had been at the park to attend a short-term mental health assessment at the Dunbar Community Center on Monday. Tips were directed to Lexington Police at (859) 258-3600 or Bluegrass Crime Stoppers at (859) 253-2020.

The Arrest and What Stays Open

By Sunday evening Griffin, 18, was in custody on the murder and related charges. Police had earlier said no arrests had been made and released no suspect description. The Youth Peace & Justice Foundation reward remained active to encourage further tips even after the arrest.

Motive, the exact sequence of shots, and any additional people involved have not been detailed publicly. The surviving victims’ long-term recovery and the community trauma supports Carama is organizing will shape the next weeks. Weathers’s message stayed consistent: the East End is not defined by the gunfire that tore through its annual gathering.

For a city that had just logged its quietest stretch in memory, the return of lethal gunfire at a park built for children and neighbors lands as both a single night’s tragedy and a test of whether the recent gains can hold.