Lexington close to surpassing homicide record again. Leaders working to combat violence
A recent string of gun violence in Lexington has left dozens injured, as the city reported four homicides and nine non-fatal shootings in August and several additional shootings thus far in September, including four shootings that left nine people hurt over the weekend and a homicide Monday night.
The city has seen multiple spikes in violent crime in 2022. In May, Lexington reported 11 homicides and 10 non-fatal shootings, marking the city’s worst month for homicides in over a dozen years. The rise in violence increased talks about gun safety and other measures needed to take to reduce the number of violent crimes.
City leaders on Tuesday said there were multiple reasons for the jump in violent crime, one of which was convicted criminals accessing guns.
“The violence that we are seeing on our streets really angers me, and it should anger you,” said Mayor Linda Gorton during a press conference on Tuesday. “It is brazen, it is bold and it is without shame. There are too many guns in the hands of criminals with ill intentions.”
Over the weekend, nine people were injured in four separate shootings across Lexington. Last week, someone fired a shot at a house party and injured 11 University of Kentucky students, including one female student who suffered a gunshot wound.
On Monday night 22-year-old Doricky Harris was shot and killed on West Sixth Street, raising the city’s annual homicide count to 35, just two shy of the yearly record that was set last year. Lexington has had three homicides this month.
Mayor: Rise in violent crime is a problem nationwide
A rise in violent crime is a trend nationally, Gorton said, and city leaders are consulting with agencies all across the country to address the issue locally.
One positive step Gorton believes the city has taken is implementing Flock safety cameras. The cameras, which read license plates and track plates that have been tied to criminal activity, helped the Lexington Police Department recover 73 stolen vehicles, locate 11 missing persons and furthered 35 criminal investigations since March, according to Gorton.
“I know many of our council members have seen the positive results of this as I hope they will be ready to move forward with a larger implementation of this system,” Gorton said. “It is working. Our police need to have the latest crime-fighting technology that’s available to them.”
Gorton also praised efforts from ONE Lexington, a group created to reduce gun violence with teenagers and young adults. According to Gorton, the number of homicide victims ages 13 to 29 have gone down recently thanks to ONE Lexington’s work.
Devine Carama, the director of ONE Lexington, said the program is helping divert young Lexington residents from violent incidents.
“Each and every day, we are seeing conflicts that can easily go one way, but through the work with our community partners, thank God we’re able to see them go another way,” Carama said.
Carama and Gorton repeated multiple times that the steps needed to reduce gun violence won’t be quick. Carama said high levels of violent crime haven’t been common in Lexington, so the city needs time to develop ways to combat the issue.
“Lexington has never really seen this much of it so we’re still building our infrastructure,” Carama said. “A lot of things that other cities are doing, when they hear about what we’re doing, they say ‘okay you all are on the right track,’ but they had years of this level of violence to build that infrastructure. We never had that so we’re just building it, but I do feel like we’re making gains.”
Improved community interaction is another major factor to solving the issue, according to Gorton and Lexington Police Chief Lawrence Weathers. Weathers said he wants people to be more willing to communicate with police if they know about criminal activity.
“If you have an inkling about it, call somebody, let them know,” Weathers said in Tuesday’s news conference. “You can be anonymous, you can use Crime Stoppers, you can use (the P3 tips app), but don’t let them scare you into that. The stuff that’s happening out there, it’s happening because we’re letting the criminals win. We cannot do that anymore.”
Gorton echoed Weathers’ comments and said more people need to speak up if they have information or see anything, because it’s impossible for the police department to cover the entire city all at once.
“We are determined to hold the criminals committing these violent and destructive criminal acts accountable,” Gorton said. “As a community, we must call out this unacceptable behavior when we see it.”
This story was originally published September 13, 2022 at 1:13 PM.
