Lexington isn’t Philadelphia, at least not yet, but it’s not for lack of trying!

The Lexington Herald-Leader’s Jeremy Chisenhall reported that on the afternoon of Thursday, June 17^th, 38-year-old Jocko Dianti Green was shot in the parking lot of an apartment complex near the University of Kentucky Hospital; he dies a few hours later.

Mr Chisenhall’s final paragraph:

Lexington has had at least 55 non-fatal shootings this year. There have also been 20 homicides committed by shooting. Lexington reported 14 homicides and 49 non-fatal shootings at this time last year.

Sadly, that information became obsolete just two days later.

Lexington man killed in overnight shooting downtown

By Karla Ward | June 19, 2021 | 12:16 PM

A 30-year-old man died after a shooting in downtown Lexington early Saturday.

Lexington police Lt. Dan Truex said police found the man suffering from a gunshot wound in a parking lot near North Mill and West Short streets at about 1:40 a.m. Truex said “a large crowd” had gathered in the area.

The man, identified as Raymar Alvester Webb by the Fayette County coroner’s office, was taken to University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:07 a.m.

Lt Truex said that the LPD didn’t have any information on suspects.

That’s 21 homicides on the 170^th day of the year. If the current rate of one murder every 8.111 days continues for the rest of the year, that figures out to 45 murders in the city for 2021. It was just June 9^th that I noted, following another two homicides, that Lexington was on track for 43 homicides. The city’s record was 34 murders, set just last year. If Lexington sees 45 this year, it would not just break the old record, but blow it out of the water, with a 32.35% increase.

Of course, in the city’s tremendous battle against crime and violence, the Urban County Council wants to take no-knock warrants out of the hands of law enforcement!