Fiancé, family want answers in University of Kentucky nurse’s violent death in attack

The evening of March 3 started normally for Jesse Averitt and his fiancé, Brandon Ward.

Ward arrived at the couple’s home in the 900 block of De Porres Avenue around 6 or 7 p.m. Averitt, a student nurse at the University of Kentucky, made dinner for himself and Ward, ensuring that he abided by the couple’s keto diet.

After they ate, Ward talked to his mother on the phone and watched TV while Averitt did laundry and played video games in his office. It was nothing out of the ordinary for the couple who’d been dating 10 years.

But just after 2 a.m. on March 4, loud blasts erupted outside the house, leaving Averitt dead and his loved ones stunned. As police investigate, the family pleads for an answer to the question: Why would someone shoot up the house of a 28-year-old medical worker?

Lexington home bombarded with bullets

“I heard like fireworks, and I’m like ‘what is going on?’” Ward told the Herald-Leader as he described the moment his fiancé was shot. The “fireworks” started breaking windows, and the threat became clear.

“I just dropped to the floor,” Ward said. He could see glass cracking and smoke from the gunfire. He crawled to the end of the couch, where he had been watching TV, and witnessed the front door get shot up. When the bullets stopped flying through the door, Ward crawled into the hallway. Averitt was still in his office, and Ward wanted to check on him.

Averitt was bleeding and told Ward he had been shot.

“That’s the last thing he told me,” Ward said.

Ward grabbed Averitt and sat in the hallway.

“He’s laying in my lap, and I’m trying to hold him and put pressure on” the gunshot wound to his abdomen.

Ward crawled through the house to find his phone. He called the police. Then he called family members.

One of those calls was to a sleeping LeaAnn Cooley, Averitt’s mother. The 52-year-old mom of three last saw her first-born son on Feb. 28, when they celebrated Ward’s birthday together.

“I answered the phone, and I just heard ‘Jesse’s been shot, Jesse’s been shot,’” Cooley told the Herald-Leader. “And I’m like, am I dreaming?”

From panic to grief: Nurse’s family reels

Cops showed up while Ward remained in a panic. He momentarily worried about opening the door for fear the shooters were still outside, but he heard a vehicle peel off before cops arrived and assumed the attackers were gone. Investigators later told him 18 bullets had hit his house.

Averitt needed help. Ward frantically asked officers what to do.

“I think my brain was so scrambled, I wasn’t thinking I was just reacting,” he said.

Cooley was on the phone as paramedics tried to save her son. She heard Ward and the paramedics, but not her son. It caused her to fear the worst.

Averitt was taken to UK Chandler Hospital about 20 minutes after Ward called 911, Ward said. At the hospital, Cooley went into “robot mode” as the doctors told her that her “mini-me” had died. She’d lost a child who often mimicked her thoughts, actions and behaviors, and now she had to tell all of her loved ones that Averitt was dead. It made the grief worse.

“That was the worst day in my entire life, having to tell all those people,” she said.

Ward couldn’t go to the hospital right away. He instead wound up at the police station as investigators tried to find out what happened. An officer later drove him to the hospital, where he learned Averitt was dead. Their home was a crime scene that Ward couldn’t enter, but he “never wanted to go back there” anyway.

The two had been planning to move, Ward said. Averitt’s stepfather owned the De Porres Avenue home they rented. The rent was cheap, and that gave them some financial freedom to save up for a house. They hadn’t yet set a wedding date because they wanted to focus on finding a new home and settling in first.

The bullets that pierced their home on March 4 obliterated those dreams. After Averitt’s death, Ward stayed with his mom and rotated between friends’ homes until he got a two-bedroom apartment.

Lexington victim had a ‘far-reaching impact’

Friends and loved ones “flooded” Ward with support. Averitt’s coworkers were vocal about their appreciation for the 28-year-old.

Averitt joined Eastern State Hospital and the Central Kentucky Recovery Care Center staff as a mental health associate in 2017, according to Marc Woods, assistant chief nurse executive for UK HealthCare-Behavioral Health.

Averitt became a licensed practical nurse about a year later and enrolled in UK’s “LPN to BSN program,” Woods said. Woods said in March that Eastern State Hospital/Central Kentucky Recovery Center and UK HealthCare were grieving the “tragic loss” of Averitt, and hearts ached for his family and friends.

“Jesse’s positive outlook made him a joy to know and work with,” Woods said in a statement. “He always had a smile on his face and a kind word for patients and his fellow teammates. All of us who loved him are mourning the loss of Jesse.”

Cooley felt the love from those who knew Averitt as well. She said she met people at Averitt’s funeral, and they told her how Averitt had positively affected their lives. His “far-reaching impact” was a comfort for Cooley.

“Your goal as a parent is to raise children like that,” Cooley said. She knew Averitt was devoted to helping others. As the oldest of three children, he learned how to take care of people from a young age, changing diapers and babysitting siblings so his mother could have some breaks.

But the words of support couldn’t soften the blow of losing Averitt.

“I’m completely destroyed,” Ward said.

Answers, arrests would help family

Cooley hasn’t heard much from police about the investigation into Averitt’s death, but she said she expected finding out who killed Averitt would be difficult.

The family has no idea who would’ve shot at the house, and Ward never saw the perpetrators before they fled the scene.

Cooley knows investigators are working on the case, but she doesn’t know when there will be results.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be soon, or a year from now, or 10 years from now, or never,” she said.

Finding the killer or killers would help only so much, Cooley said.

“At least I would just have some answers,” she said.

Cooley asked that anyone with information about Averitt’s shooting call the police “so that we can get some answers.”

Ward said he hadn’t heard much from Lexington police either.

“I can’t sit there and call them,” he said, “ … It’s just not something I can handle.”

The police department didn’t immediately respond to the Herald-Leader’s questions about the investigation into Averitt’s death. But Lexington police previously asked members of the public to contact police at (859) 258-3600 if they have any information about Averitt’s killing.

Anonymous tips can also be submitted through Bluegrass Crime Stoppers by calling (859) 253-2020, online at www.bluegrasscrimestoppers.com, or through the P3 tips app available at www.p3tips.com.

Averitt was Lexington’s ninth homicide in 2021. Seven have followed. There have been 16 fatal shootings through mid-May. Lexington set a homicide record last year with 34 killings.

Eleven of this year’s homicides are unsolved, according to Lexington police data. Eight of last year’s homicides are still open.

There have also been 38 non-fatal shootings so far in 2021, according to Lexington police data and Herald-Leader reporting. At this time last year, there were 39.

Ward said he’s growing more concerned about the threat of gun violence in Lexington.

“Lexington needs to get on its game.”