No arrests so far in Louisville area vet hospital shooting death; officials decline to release police reports

It’s been two weeks since 21-year-old Trent “TJ” Taylor was fatally shot at Shively Animal Hospital, where he was working on Mother’s Day alongside his mother and brother.

“No one can understand why she has not been arrested or charged with anything,” Trent “TJ” Taylor’s stepmother Jennifer “Jenni” Taylor told TCR in a telephone interview Sunday evening, referring to a dog owner and client of the Shively Animal Hospital who she says fatally shot her son at point blank range. 

“I put pressure on his chest, and I held his hand, and I told him how much I loved him. I told him how much his dad loved him. I told him, we’re having a baby. Remember you’re gonna be a daddy. We’re having a baby. So, you know, you gotta stay awake. I need you to stay awake. And he, he said how thirsty he was. And I know from human medicine when they say they’re thirsty, that they’re bleeding out. And he got really pale. And I knew that he wasn’t gonna make it. So, I just told him how much I love him. And I just watched him dying.”

According to TJ’s parents, who provided individual accounts to TCR, fifteen minutes passed from the time the 911 dispatcher was told Mr. Taylor had been shot before an ambulance finally arrived on scene. Jennifer Taylor says practice owner Dr. Mary Jane Fuchs was on the line with 911 almost from the moment the suspect arrived, but, she says, “People treat us terribly, so we have the police department on speed dial. So, they didn’t take us seriously,” Ms. Taylor said, referring to the Shively Police Department, “until we called them the third time and said that an employee was shot.”

When the police finally arrived, Ms. Taylor says, “they didn’t even come straight in, and they were sitting there talking to [the women in the parking lot].”

“They didn’t run in, they walked in,” Ms. Taylor added.

According to TJ’s parents, who provided individual accounts to TCR, fifteen minutes passed from the time the 911 dispatcher was told Mr. Taylor had been shot before an ambulance finally arrived on scene. Jennifer Taylor says practice owner Dr. Mary Jane Fuchs was on the line with 911 almost from the moment the suspect arrived.

“We all kind of grabbed a limb and started dragging him, we got through the door. I screamed for someone to lock the door. They did. So then they were finally locked out,” Ms. Taylor told TCR, referring to the suspect and the two women accompanying her.

“Then he collapsed right there in the exit hallway.”

Jennifer VanMeter Smith posted this account to her Facebook profile:

“Today I took my kittens to Shively Animal Clinic for a check up and while I was in a patient room someone was arguing and having an extreme severe mental health crises (SIC) in the hallway for what seemed like 10 min, eventually they took the argument outside and seconds after they left th hallway I heard a single gun shot followed by the loudest screams I have ever heard. Someone screamed “you shot my kid!” I grabbed up my kittens and ran to the back of the building. I found a lady who worked there and I informed her of the gun fire and screaming and she lead me to a room in the back where I hid with my 3 day old kittens. I was shaking.”