Founder of anti-violence group reflects on JCPS school bus stop shooting death that inspired efforts

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - A jury this week convicted Demaurion Moore and Mekhi Cable of murdering 16-year-old Tyree Smith at his school bus stop in 2021. Smith was not the intended target.

For Kamal Wells, the case represented two losses — the boy who was killed and the boys who did the killing.

“He needed somebody to stand up for him in his absence, even though he was already gone. Not just him. These other kids need someone now,” Wells said.

Smith’s death five years ago inspired Wells to found Men Against Gun Violence, a group of volunteers protecting students at JCPS bus stops during the school year.

But Wells’s determination to create change in the community has continued to grow, which is why he has partnered with Chandra Stroud at A Hand Up Community Resource Center for the third year to help teach a youth summer program combining financial literacy with street intervention.

“They become our children. They really do. We have to stand in the gap,” said Stroud.

The program uses hands-on examples to walk students through real-life scenarios, showing them the consequences of their choices before those choices are made.

“Now you have a chance to see it before it happens. You have a chance to experience a scenario similar to what you might go through in real life. So now you have something to reflect back on and say, ‘Hey, you know what? I played this game before. I’m not gonna do that,” Wells said.

The program aims to reach students before the streets do, or before the justice system has to.

“We have to show these kids there is another avenue. Because you don’t know what you don’t know,” Stroud said. “Every kid we can touch is one less that we feel are going to go their route.”

Three years into the program, they have not lost a single student.

For Wells, justice means not just a verdict in a courtroom, but preventing the next tragedy from happening on either side of the gun.

“Had Tyree not been killed, I probably wouldn’t be doing it in the capacity I’m doing now. Sometimes a good thing can come out of a bad situation,” Wells said.

Moore and Cable are due to be formally sentenced Wednesday, Aug. 26, at 2 p.m.

Wells said he hopes the attention on this case brings more volunteers and more funding to keep both programs going.