When last we reported on it, Lexington had seen 28 homicides in 2021, the last on September 3^rd. Lexington’s 29^th murder happened early this morning:

Update: Man dies after shooting at Lexington apartment complex

By Christopher Leach | Updated: October 5, 2021 | 4:37 PM EDT

A 23-year-old man died shortly after he was found shot at a Lexington apartment complex early Tuesday, according to police.

Jayontai McCann of Lexington died at the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital at 5:17 a.m., according to the Fayette County coroner.

The report doesn’t have much information in it. Just before 4:00 AM, the Lexington Police Department received a call about a man being assaulted behind the Liberty Heights Apartments. When officers arrived, they found the victim, who had been shot multiple times. It’s almost a sick joke to note that the police stated that they were investigating the case of a victim shot “multiple times” as a homicide.

Twenty-nine homicides in 278 days equals one every 9½ days. Due to fractions, the exact number works out to 38 homicides for the year. With 29 murders, Lexington is just one behind the then record of 30, set in 2019, but, of course, the record was broken again, with 34 in 2020. With a population of 324,604 according to the 2020 census, the city’s homicide rate in 2020 worked out to 10.474 per 100,000 population. If Lexington hits 38 homicides, the way the numbers work out, that would be a jump to 11.707 per 100,000, hardly on a par with Chicago or Philadelphia, but bad enough.

However, let’s tell the whole truth here.

Suspect arrested for shooting that injured EKU player

By Echo Gamel | July 24, 2019

LEXINGTON, KY. (WTVQ) – Police announce an arrest in a shooting last month in Lexington that left an Eastern Kentucky Football player injured.

The Lexington Police Department says 21-year-old Jayontai McCann is facing charges for the shooting on June 23 near Two Keys Tavern.

According to officers, two men got into a fight then one went to his car to get a gun and shot the other man.

The victim was later identified as Cameron Catron, a player on the EKU football team.

McCann is charged with assault, possession of a handgun by convicted felon, and tampering with physical evidence.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported^[1]The Herald-Leader actually printed Mr McCann’s mugshot in that story, but it was before the silly McClatchy Mugshot Policy was written.:

According to court records, McCann was on probation at the time of the shooting after pleading guilty in August. He was charged with cocaine possession and attempted evidence tampering. His prison sentence and jail sentence on the two charges were suspended and he was given probation for two years.

He had previously been charged with other drug and gun crimes and pleaded guilty in some instances.

The obvious question is: why was Mr McCann out on the streets Tuesday morning? He had been a previously convicted felon, and had a suspended sentence hanging over his head. He should have been locked up for the two years of his suspended sentence, even before facing charges for shooting Mr Cameron.

Did law enforcement do Mr McCann any favors by treating him leniently? If he had been in prison, where he should have been, he would (probably) be alive today. By letting him loose, loose to return to whatever life he led before, law enforcement left him out to become stone-cold graveyard dead.

The odds are pretty good that, if and when the Lexington Police figure out who murdered Mr McCann, we’ll discover that he, too, had a rap sheet and could, and should, have been in jail himself early Tuesday morning.

The Urban Dictionary defines a “self-cleaning oven” as:

when a criminal becomes the victim of a crime because he victimized someone at an earlier time; in other words, karma comes back on the criminal, the problem takes care of itself without the need for police or legal intervention. In theory, eventually all crime should diminish because of this theory, the oven should clean itself.

“Man, that banger got shot because he jacked those same dudes last week…it’s okay because now his crew will roll back on them…they don’t want to make a police report, it’s a self-cleaning oven.”

On one of my favorite television shows, Blue Bloods, it’s called a public service homicide.

It is, however, possible that Mr McCann was turning his life around, and whatever his past crimes, he didn’t deserve to die. But bad lives can lead to bad ends, whether he was turning his life around or not.