LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A police investigative file has shed new light on a deadly shooting at the Shively Animal Clinic.
On Mother’s Day, a trip to the Shively Animal Clinic took a turn a woman never expected. She ended a man’s life.
The woman who pulled the trigger and her wife spoke with WDRB News on Friday to share their side of what happened. WDRB is protecting their identities because they won’t be charged in the case.
“I have a lot of regret and a lot of remorse for this,” the shooter said. “And it’s not easy to continue every day after you have to make a decision like that.”
She’s sharing her story now after a Jefferson County Grand Jury decided she wouldn’t face any charges for shooting and killing a man outside the clinic.
The surveillance video released by police shows the confrontation inside the clinic. It started when the woman, unhappy with the services provided, tried to leave the clinic with her dog without paying.
“I didn’t want to harm anybody,” the shooter said. “I don’t just go around harming people. That’s not my intention at all. I’m not an aggressive person. I’m not angry.”
Prosecutors said the man who was killed, 21-year-old Trent “TJ” Taylor, was the initial aggressor and the shooting was in self-defense.
Trent Taylor, Jr. was fatally shot on Sunday, May 14, 2023 at the Shively Animal Clinic, according to police. (Image source: GoFundMe)
“If I could take that moment back I would,” the shooter said. “I would take it back. I would take every second of it back.”
Taylor worked at the clinic along with his mother.
“That mother had to hold her son in her arms on Mother’s Day as he was passing so just knowing that… that alone makes my stomach hurt,” the shooter said.
The video shows Taylor hitting the shooter and her wife several times, but a crucial 10 seconds of the fight happened outside, which was an angle not viewable by the footage.
“He punches… shoves me up against a wall and proceeds to choke me,” the shooter’s wife said. “And just beating me honestly. By the time he punched me in the head, I was already unconscious. I had already blacked out. I just felt the pressure of the punches.”
The Shively Police case file supports this version of events.
Several witnesses, including clinic employees, told investigators they saw Taylor restrain the shooter’s wife by the neck outside and shove her against a wall.
Witnesses reported seeing the woman bleeding after her head was slammed into the building. Police took photos to document her injuries.
Police took photos of the injuries sustained in the Shively Animal Clinic shooting.
The police documents also reveal a rake was involved and that it, along with a traffic cone use during the attack, was moved by Taylor’s mother to another area outside before officers arrived.
“I looked this man in his eyes and I knew he wasn’t going to stop,” the shooter’s wife said. “I knew it was either me or him and I was going to be dead.”
It was that attack on his wife that prompted the shooter to pull the trigger.
“I thought he was going to kill my wife,” the shooter said. “I was telling him to get off of her over and over and over again. Telling him to let her go.”
“It was hard,” the shooter’s wife said. “It was a hard decision that she had to make. But in my words, I feel like she did the best thing that she knew how to do. And that was to protect her wife, that’s what she made a vow to do.”
The couple said they’ve been receiving threats and fear for their safety. But they felt it was important to share their side of what happened.
“The aftermath has been violent,” the shooter said. “The feeling is unexplainable. The aftermath of not sleeping… barely eating… I’ve had to uproot and move out of my home. I’ve had to… basically just conceal my entire identity. It’s been hard .”
“This wasn’t something that was intentional,” the shooter’s wife said. “It didn’t come from an angry place. This was just a routine doctor’s visit to get our animal and it ended with something unjust.”
Taylor’s family has shared threatening and taunting messages they’ve received on social media.
The shooter and his wife said those messages didn’t come from them or anyone they knew.
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