A Louisville activist has been arrested as a suspect in Monday's attempted shooting of Louisville mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg. Activist Quintez Brown, 21, was taken into custody on Monday and has been charged with attempted murder and four counts of wanton endangerment after Greenberg survived a shooting attempt in his office on Monday.
The bullet didn't cause any injury to Greenberg as it hit a piece of clothing he was wearing. Greenberg later tweeted his team was safe and he would provide an update in due course. No motive behind the murder attempt has yet been identified by Louisville police as of now.
Narrow Escape
Greenberg was shot at in his campaign headquarters Monday morning in Butchertown, Louisville Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD) spokeswoman Elizabeth Ruoff said late Monday. The Democrat mayoral candidate for Louisville was shot at by a lone attacker, who was later identified as Brown.
Greenberg said that the attacker appeared from nowhere when he was in his office along with four other colleagues. They greeted the man but the man in return took out his 9mm Glock handgun and started shooting at Greenberg before fleeing the building.
Luckily Greenberg and his colleagues escaped unharmed. In fact, Greenberg narrowly escaped as the bulled gazed past his sweater. Several people, including Greenberg, were seen being escorted unharmed out of the building by police.
"We consider ourselves very fortunate today," said Louisville police chief Erika Shields at a Monday afternoon news conference.
LMPD Chief Erika Shields said that 911 calls regarding an "active aggressor" were received at 10:15 am, prompting police to clear the building containing Greenberg's office. His office is near Butchertown Market and the JBS plant.
David James, president of the local metro council, told local media that the shooting was an attempt on Greenberg's life. No details about the attacker were initially released but the suspect was soon in custody.
Motive Unclear
Following the incident, police started a search for the suspect. Officers found a man matching the suspect description less than a half-mile from the campaign headquarters about 10 minutes later, carrying a loaded 9mm magazine in his pants pocket, according to the arrest report.
He was later identified as Brown. According to the report, the suspect also had a drawstring bag with a handgun, a handgun case, and more magazines. Surveillance video from the building showed the suspect wearing Brown's clothes and carrying a bag that matched his.
Brown had been a University of Louisville student and an opinion editor for the Cardinal, the student newspaper. He is a well-known activist who led youth protests during the summer 2020 social justice movements. He also frequently wrote opinion editorials about race relations in the Courier Journal.
In June of last year, he was also the subject of a missing persons inquiry. Brown vanished in late June 2021, prompting a city-wide search. His family had requested seclusion while they focused on his mental, physical, and spiritual wellness, and he was eventually found.
He also recently announced that he was planning to run for Metro Council's District 5 seat. In his Twitter profile, he said: "We have one scientific and correct solution, Pan-Africanism: the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism."
In another Twitter post on January 10, he wrote what he called a "Revolutionary Love Letter" saying, "I am writing this to remind you how great you are. During our short stay on this glorious planet we all have been collectively dehumanized and reduced to political talking points — Black, white, liberal, conservative, Christian, criminal, boss, worker, activist, etc.
It is still unclear what prompted Brown to try and assassinate Greenberg. Greenberg said the incident left him and his staff "shaken, but safe."
"Mr. Greenberg is Jewish, so there's that, we don't know if it's tied to the candidates or is political or if we are dealing with someone with mental issues or is venomous," Shields said. "We are looking at this from all angles."
