Chief of police responds to violent weekends in Lexington

Lexington, Ky. (WTVQ) — Over the last few weeks there seems to have been a rise in homicides here in Lexington. However, Lexington police crime data tells a different story.

According to the crime data, the city of Lexington has 21 homicides for 2023.

No. 21 is from Sept. 30 and compared to last year around that same time the city had 36 homicides.

Though police are still investigating other shootings from this year.

Lexington police chief Lawrence Weathers says most homicides aren’t committed by strangers.

“Like most violence we have a lot of it’s interpersonal,” said Weathers. “It doesn’t affect the community at large, it’s usually between the people involved. I know that may not give some people comfort, but you know. We have to understand that most of what we see is not just random.”

But that doesn’t mean that every case is the same.

“Everything that we see has different circumstances. You can’t apply a blanket of cause for all of it.”

Weathers wants to see a decrease in these crimes.

“What we’d like to see is we’d like to see people treating each other more like human beings. Being decent to people, I mean it’s unexplainable. I certainly can’t explain it. But we’re going to do everything in our power to hold those people accountable.”

Lexington police urge anyone with information about a homicide case to call police or submit an anonymous tip through Bluegrass Crime Stoppers.