LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – Four years ago on June 27, 2020, Louisville photographer Tyler Gerth was killed in a shooting during the protests that sparked from Breonna Taylor’s death.

Earlier this year, the case came to a close when the shooter responsible for his death, Steven Lopez, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

In the years since his death, Tyler’s family has dedicated themselves to passing on his passion for photography and giving back to the community.

“I think for him, photography was just his way to explore and be curious and really give a voice to what he saw in the world around him,” Tyler’s sister Brittany Loewen said.

During the 2020 protests, Tyler’s photos captured a racial reckoning in Louisville and across the country. Loewen said he was drawn to capturing history.

“With Tyler’s passion for history and his love of photography, he really felt like that was the meeting of both of those passions and felt a really strong urge to be down at Jefferson Square,” Loewen said. “He felt like this was history unfolding.”

Surveillance video showed the moments Lopez was asked to leave the protest after other protesters said he had been unruly. In the video, Lopez is seen pulling out another protester’s gun and shooting into the crowd. Tyler was hit and died before he could be taken to the hospital.

Lopez eventually took a plea deal in the case. The murder charge was amended down to manslaughter and he was sentenced to 30 years for that charge and 21 counts of wanton endangerment.

“He has life ahead of him,” Loewen said. “Unlike Tyler, he still has the opportunity to live with purpose and make something out of this. That’s our family’s deep hope is that restoration can come.”

Loewen spoke at the sentencing. She said she’s grappled with forgiving Lopez and hopes that he can learn from Tyler’s legacy.

“I hope that he is inspired by Tyler and I hope that he can learn from Tyler,” Loewen said. “There’s tremendous irony in the fact that Tyler was killed a week before his 28th birthday and Steven was just sentenced a short time before his 28th birthday.”

Over the past four years, his family has created a non-profit called Building Equal Bridges – the Tyler Gerth Foundation.

The organization gives out scholarships and also started a program called the Polaroid Project through the Louisville Urban League that allows kids to practice their own photography.

“It challenges them to see their surroundings in a new way, to tell the story of their families or their communities, their neighborhoods, in a different way,” Louisville Urban League President & CEO Lyndon Pryor said.

The program lets kids experiment with photojournalism. Pryor says the students are asked to take pictures in the community and write an essay about the meaning behind them.

Tyler’s family said it’s the perfect way to honor his legacy and let others share his passion.

“Because Tyler’s death was so public and so traumatic, we wanted to shift the focus from the details of his death to the focus of his life,” Loewen said.

“It’s carrying that message on through them and helping them to essentially do the exact same thing through their images, through their words, through this art form,” Pryor said.

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