Authorities said the man was discovered in the road on Franklin Avenue early Wednesday morning.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An early morning call to Louisville Metro Police led officers to a grim scene in Pleasure Ridge Park on Wednesday, where a man was found dead in the road beside a vehicle along the 2600 block of Franklin Avenue.
Investigators said officers were sent to the area around 6:18 a.m. on a report of a shooting. At the scene, police found a man estimated to be between 25 and 35 years old. He had what appeared to be a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead there, according to police.
Officials initially referred to the case as a deadly shooting and said the department’s homicide unit was investigating. Later in the morning, police changed the public description of the case and said it was a death investigation, though they did not say what prompted that shift. That left the basic outline of the case intact while adding uncertainty about how detectives now classify the death.
Authorities released no information about possible suspects and did not identify a motive. Police also did not say whether the victim had been in or near the vehicle before he was found, how long he may have been lying in the road, or whether nearby homes or businesses captured any surveillance footage connected to the case.
The investigation remained active Wednesday as detectives processed the scene in the PRP neighborhood. The man’s name had not been made public, pending further investigation and likely family notification. Police asked anyone with information to call the department’s anonymous crime tip line at 502-574-LMPD.
For now, the case stands as an unexplained death on a Louisville street, with key details still missing and police offering only a narrow public account of what happened before sunrise on Franklin Avenue.
Author note: Last updated April 22, 2026.