LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Police data says shootings in Louisville are on pace to more than double from just two years ago.
The Courier-Journal reports (http://cjky.it/2aeCNZZ ) nearly 250 people were shot in the city through June this year, according to recently released Louisville Police fatal and nonfatal shooting data.
City and community leaders are calling the shootings a public health crisis.
Eighty-eight people suffered gunshot wounds in the first half of 2011, the first year police starting tracking the shootings. Louisville hit that number before the end of March this year.
The city is also on pace to approach the total of 110 homicides recorded in 1971, the deadliest year in police data going back to 1960.
In March, homicide unit Lt. Todd Kessinger said he believes most of the violence is “narcotics related.”