On the evening of July 6, 2024, a birthday party for 21-year-old Brendon Parrett was held at the Ridgecrest Drive home of his mother, 44-year-old Melissa Parrett, in Florence, Kentucky. Chase Garvey, then 21, arrived at the home but was not an attendee of the party. He reportedly stalked outside the residence for nearly an hour before opening fire, killing four people and wounding three others.
Florence Police Department officers responded to reports of an active shooter and arrived while the attack was still underway. Partygoers identified Garvey to officers and provided a description of the vehicle he had fled in. Responding officers spotted the vehicle near Farmview Drive and Old U.S. 42 and attempted to stop it, resulting in a pursuit involving the Florence Police Department and Boone County Sheriff's Office. Garvey drove off the road into a ditch south of Union. Officers approaching the vehicle discovered he had shot himself; he was transported to St. Elizabeth Florence Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police later determined the self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head caused him to lose control of the vehicle.
Two victims were found outside the residence and five inside. Those killed were Melissa Parrett, the party's host; Delaney Eary, 19, of Burlington; Hayden Rybicki, 20, of Elsmere; and Shane Miller, 20, of Florence. Eary's family told reporters that Garvey was her ex-boyfriend. Melissa Parrett's daughter, Chloe, 19, was shot in the chest and survived; her father, Bruce Parrett, credited Melissa with saving Chloe's life by running downstairs during the attack. Surviving victims were taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, and Parrett's lungs reportedly could not hold air unaided afterward.
Garvey had previously been charged with first-degree rape and second-degree sodomy in connection with the assault of a 13-year-old girl he met on Snapchat in 2021, when he was 17 and she was 13; he admitted to raping her in his car. His charges were later reduced to unlawful transaction with a minor, and he received five years of probation, a $25,000 bond, home incarceration, and mandated psychological counseling. The Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney, Rob Sanders, said the case did not go to trial because the victim's mother did not want her to testify. Garvey was barred from owning a firearm as a convicted felon; it remains unclear how he obtained the weapon used in the attack. In spring 2023, he was arrested after performing donuts in a parking lot with a 13-year-old boy in the passenger seat, leading to charges of wanton endangerment and reckless driving and a 30-day jail sentence after his probation officer sought revocation.
In the aftermath, Florence Police Chief Jeff Mallery and Captain Greg Rehkamp described it as the city's first mass shooting. Boone County Schools offered counseling to affected students, a vigil was held on July 9 at Crestview Hills Town Center, and local businesses organized fundraisers for victims. The Hayden Rybicki Foundation was later established in memory of one of the victims.
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