LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville sits on the horizon of a grim forecast. It’s only September and the city has already recorded 117 homicides, tying the record set in 2016.
"Something’s got to change, something’s got to give,” said Neal Robertson, president of the West Louisville Urban Coalition. “What are we coming to?”
The record-setting pace of violent shootings this year is a fact community leaders are trying to deal with.
"You’d think after about 30 years you’d be somewhat jaded by it or somewhat immune but each one hurts in a different type of way,” said Dr. Eddie Woods, CEO of anti-violence organization No More Red Dots.
“People are dying, mothers are crying, every time you look up little babies are getting killed,” Robertson said.
Robertson points to the pandemic as one cause for the violence.
“No one’s being hugged, no one’s being nurtured in regards to their feelings and what’s going on with them," Robertson said. "The mental health balance is out of whack."
Woods said he believes guns are at the center of it all, with many guns in the wrong hands.
"Gang involvement, drug involvement,” he said. “A lot of them are very, very young. We’ve got some as young as 12 years old that are creating a lot of havoc right now."
Both leaders are calling for solutions, which they said seem hard to find right now.
"You just can’t put a band-aid over it," Robertson said. "These are gunshot wounds."
Woods and Robertson said they want to see city, community and faith leaders come together and take more steps towards addressing what is happening with the city's violence.
“Where are the meetings at? People say they're tired of meetings, they want action, but meetings are preparation and planning for action and if you don’t plan, plan to fail,” Robertson said.
Woods said steps are also needed at the homes of those committing the violent crimes.
"We don’t have 116 shooters in this town,” he said. “I would hope that folks who know these people would have some kind of conversation with them about making a different kind of choice than taking a life.”
Of the homicides so far in 2020, at least 70 of them are still open cases, according to LMPD’s website.
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