Travis Nagdy, 21-Year-Old Leader During Louisville’s BLM Breonna Taylor Protests, Mourned After Fatal Shooting

Hamza “Travis” Nagdy, a 21-year-old protest leader considered “irreplaceable” by members of his Louisville community, was killed in a shooting on Monday, November 23, the city’s Courier Journal newspaper reported. According to the paper, the man known for his leadership at this year’s protests, which followed the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor, was killed in a shooting during a record year for gun violence in the Kentucky city.

“I told them two months before the movement, I was the closest I had ever been to committing suicide,” Travis told the Courier Journal in October. “And I could’ve just not been here, straight up. I could’ve just not been here.

“I came out to protest, just observing, watching, using a megaphone whenever I could,” he explained to the paper. “There was just so much beautiful interaction that happened that it made me realize that what was going on out here was building something different, and it gave me a reason to live.”

“I’m an ex-foster kid, I’m a felon, and I don’t have my GED,” Travis had told the paper. “I spent three years or four years, not consecutively, incarcerated. And next week I’m flying to New York with Until Freedom. I’m having lunch with a state representative. I got people asking me to lead marches.”

According to the Courier Journal, Travis was known to some as “Chants the Rapper” for his prowess leading protests on a bullhorn. Notable for his large stature and big hair, he had become a fixture of protests in Louisville this year, a living testament to the Black Lives Matter movement’s ability to give a voice to people directly impacted by the criminal justice system.

The Courier Journal reported that more than 200 people gathered Monday night in Louisville to mourn Travis.

“Travis is my baby boy,” his mother, Christina Muimneach, said at Monday’s memorial. “I’m devastated. I’m shocked […] but I am tremendously proud of him.”

A scene from Monday’s memorial.Jon Cherry/Getty Images

“He’s irreplaceable,” independent reporter Antonio T-Made Taylor, a mentor to Travis, told the Courier Journal. “Travis really believed he could help change systemic racism. He believed he could be a big part of that change.”

“If you ever needed to see hope in a young man, you could look at Travis and see it,” Taylor said. “He was inspiring, he was insightful, he was encouraging. He was so willing to learn. He was just a beacon of hope. Him and his megaphone.”