Man shot while giving food to homeless people

LOUISVILLE, Ky. ( WAVE /Gray News) - A man was shot while he and his wife were giving food to homeless people in Kentucky.

Ramona Mattingly and her husband Joe have made it their mission since 2020 to feed front-line workers and those in need.

Ramona Mattingly said she just got out of the hospital on Saturday and is living with terminal cancer. Her husband had just picked her up when they got a call they could not ignore.

"We got a call saying that there was a woman and a 6-year-old little girl over off Norene that had been evicted, that hadn't ate," she said.

The Mattinglys were feeding the mother and child when a man walked up, pulled out a gun and shot Joe Mattingly.

"Bam. Bam. Joe fell to the ground," she said. "I had this guy take the tie strap and tie his leg off because I thought it was an artery because it was pouring blood."

Joe Mattingly had surgery on Sunday for the gunshot wound in his right leg.

Doctors said his bone is shattered and Ramona Mattingly fears that her husband may never be able to walk again.

Ramona Mattingly said it wasn't a random act of violence. She claimed the man who shot her husband had accused her husband of hitting his car just a few days before.

"Right before he went in the hospital, my husband had to stop by there to show him that we didn't do it because he was there and he walked around my truck then. Why he walked out while he was delivering food, I don't know," she said. "No vehicle was hit. Them cameras will prove that. If we did hit him, he had no right to shoot my husband."

Police had not made any arrests in the case and it's not clear if there are any known suspects.

Meanwhile, Joe Mattingly awaits surgery on his leg and the possibility he may never walk again.

"I cannot see a 6-foot-4 man in a wheelchair, but they said they shot him two times and the bone was splattered," Ramona Mattingly said.

She said that their work with people experiencing homelessness will have to come to end because she feels like it is too dangerous.