LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With just one day left of the year, Louisville Metro Police released the city's homicide rates.
According to the report, 160 people were killed in 2022, which is a drop from last year's total of 188 people. However, it's about the same as in 2020, when 161 people were killed.
During a news conference Friday, Lieutenant Colonel Steve Healey discussed the violent crime levels. He said while gun violence continues to take lives at an unacceptable rate, the city is trending in the right direction.
Police say non-deadly shootings are down 33% from last year. They've also made arrests in nearly 50% of cases, compared to 33% last year.
"We've begun outsourcing DNA to where we are getting results back a lot quicker," Healey said. "We refocused our criminal intelligence division to where they focused strictly on violent crime, violent offenders, and not so much the smaller narcotics traffickers."
However, victims' families are not impressed.
"It's sad. It's really sad that Louisville ends another year in triple digits and I just hope the next year gets better," Navada Gwynn said.
Navada and Krista Gwynn's son Christian was murdered in 2019 by Jameko Lee Hayden near 43rd and Market Street.
"We'll give anything to have Christian back," Krista said.
Christian was 19 when he died, the same age his sister Victoria was shot at Ballard Park park in June 2021. Thankfully she survived, but Krista says the pain is just the same.
"The non-fatals are hurting just as bad as the people that lost fatals. My daughter fights demons every day," Krista said.
Trauma surgeon Keith Miller, who helped save Victoria, says gun violence goes beyond those who lost lives. He says every single person hit by gunfire has to overcome life-altering challenges.
"You can see that the lives of those are going to a tremendous amount of their time is going to be spent in the rehabilitation process and trying to get that patient back to that individual back to the baseline, if possible," Miller said. "And many of these injuries, they'll never get back to the baseline or their pre-injury status."
Miller hopes the city continues to expand on violence intervention programs in 2023. The Gwynns also want to see more police presence in high-crime areas, more people taking accountability and less guns in the wrong hands.
"Two is too many, but 160? It may be down, but It's not down enough. We need everybody to put in on this and work with each other to get the help that Louisville needs," Krista said.
Miller says over the last decade gun violence has shifted more toward impacting younger individuals.
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