LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — As we wrap up 2022, police data shows there have been 43 homicides.
Throughout the year, LEX 18 has spoken to the victims' families and friends, providing insight into who the victims were as people while processing their own immeasurable losses.
Of the 43 homicides in 2022, police listed 35 as gun-related.
At the start of the year, the community was overcome with shock and grief when police reported that 10-year-old Landon Hayes was shot and killed by a man his mother was dating in a murder-suicide.
"As a family, we had rage, we had anger, you know, we had so many questions, and I felt like the only way our questions could be answered and that was through prayer," Landon's cousin said.
In the summer there was yet another tragedy when 13-year-old Deon Williams and his 5-year-old sister Skyler were stabbed to death. Their mother, Nikki James, was accused and has been indicted by a grand jury.
"What would compel a mother to do something like that to her children," Deon and Skyler's half-sister, Dariah Williams, said.
In May, three members of the same family, Linda, Bryonny, and Bronwyn Wilson, were shot and killed. Husband and father Steven Wilson is accused in the triple homicide.
"And then in your own neighborhood, three innocent people were murdered the way that they were, I mean it's devastating," neighbor Julie Helmick said.
At her swearing-in ceremony Friday, violence was what Mayor Linda Gorton first mentioned on her list of issues she wants to tackle in the future.
"Our agenda for the next few years is full," Gorton said. "As we focus on public safety, we continue to uplift and protect our young people as well as expand our emphasis to disrupt domestic violence and create paths forward to improve mental health."
Over the past 5 years, Lexington's homicide numbers have increased yearly. In 2018, police reported 23 homicides, according to LPD data. In 2019,police recorded 30. In 2020 there were 34. In 2021 there were 37.
