Lexington, Kentucky, which saw a city record of 34 homicides in 2020, is now half way to that total, with 7¼ months left to go in the year.
Victim of fatal shooting in Lexington early Saturday has been identified
By Karla Ward | May 22, 2021 | 1:06 PM | Updated: 2:26 PM EDT
Two separate shootings left one man dead and two women injured in Lexington early Saturday.
Lexington police Sgt. Wayne Terry said police were investigating a fatal shooting on Hillcrest Avenue, just off Winchester Road. The crime was reported just before 3 a.m., he said.
The Fayette County coroner’s office said Demonte Washington, 28, was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:33 a.m.
It was the 17th homicide of 2021 in Fayette County.
Terry did not have any information about a suspect, but he said “it appears to be an isolated incident.”
WLEX-TV updated their report at 7:03 PM, and said that the Lexington Police Department has a suspect in custody.
Seventeen murders in 142 days works out to 43 to 44 homicides for the year, if the rate continues to be the same. But hey, that’s way, way, way behind St Louis and Philadelphia!
It seems that the neighborhood doesn’t want the police defunded. From WKYT News:
It comes as no surprise to neighbors down the street. “This is the third shooting here in a couple of months,” one neighbor said. “Sometimes it sounds like two or three shots a night sounds like a lot, but in this neighborhood that’s just common place.”
Some say they’re worried about their kids playing outside. “We don’t come outside. We play in the backyard. We make sure we don’t ever play out front. It’s kind of a dumb thing around here.”
But they say the shootings don’t involve the neighbors themselves. Many people we talked to believe the nightlife is to blame.
That’s why they’re begging for more police in the area.
“I think that with everything that’s going on, we don’t have enough protection. We need to be protected from the people who are out here doing these things,” the neighbor said.
The shooting location is given as the corner of Winchester Road and Hillcrest Avenue. Winchester Road is heavily commercial in that area; the neighborhoods around Hillcrest Avenue are mostly starter homes, and are racially integrated.
Lexington recorded its 17th homicide of the year, exactly half of last year’s record of 34, at 3:33 AM Saturday morning. That puts the city on pace for 43 or 44 killings this year.
However, bad journalism is a city hallmark: though WLEX-TV reported, at 7:03 PM yesterday, that a suspect has been arrested, but at 11:13 AM today, neither the Herald-Leader nor any of the other media outlets has any information on the suspect.
The Herald-Leader doesn’t even publish a Saturday edition anymore, but they do publish on Sunday. But, looking at their website, the only stories I see dated today are in sports.