LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Lexington Police are investigating a homicide after a 16-year-old Fayette County Public Schools boy was found dead.
Just before 2 a.m. on Tuesday, 16-year-old Arsenio Jackson Jr. was shot and killed on Rambling Creek Drive in a neighborhood off Liberty Road near Starshoot.
Police found Jackson's body in the road. Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn confirmed Jackson was shot to death.
"When you take somebody's life you killed their mother, their father, their sister. You killed their whole family," said Alisa Hairston who lost her son to gun violence in 2021. '"At 16 you're thinking about prom or getting close to graduate. You know all of this is gone that quick."
A Fayette County Public Schools spokesperson confirmed Jackson was a junior at Henry Clay High School.
For the last four years, Hairston has made it her mission to keep the conversation around gun violence on-going. "They do not have a cap. They have not locked down gun violence and until we stick together, as far as policy changes and really getting down to the core, on why these kids are feeling comfortable picking up a gun. But the reason why I feel downtown is failing our children."
Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton posted to Facebook on Tuesday regarding the shooting:
Lexington Police have not given any details about what lead up to the shooting. There is no indication of any gang involvement in Jackson's death, but Hairston believes the violence in the city stretches far beyond one-on-one crime.
"The Lexington Police Department needs to really face the fact that gangs are here. And some of these kids that are being killed is because they don't want to be in gangs anymore. They realize they made a mistake and they want out," explains Hairston, who says Lexington Police and the city need to start acknowledging that gangs are happening in our city.
Hairston believes there needs to be more accountability and there would be less gun violence if we all worked together to stop it.
