LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Over the last two weeks, Lexington has seen several violent incidents. Last week, there was a police shooting and a murder. This week, there was a shooting at a party near UK, then last night another murder and this incident along Tates Creek Road where an officer was shot and a suspect killed.
"Seems like every day, we're hearing about a shooting, whether the person's killed, whether the person survived the shooting, or whether no one was hit at all," said Sherry Warsh, a member of the faith-based anti-violence group B.U.I.L.D.
B.U.I.L.D. has been lobbying for the city to implement new policies, including what's called group violence intervention.
"They are just responding and reacting, so nothing is really being done until after the shootings are happening. When you've got the group violence intervention program, which we'll get out there, it'll be ahead of the violence to try to curb….if we can save one life, the program has worked," Warsh said.
At an Urban County Council meeting Thursday night, Mayor Linda Gorton and her challenger, current councilmember David Kloiber traded words about the shooting that happened near campus Wednesday night.
"I was there at Fred Brown's talking with the community at Fred Brown's community violence meeting and you were not there," Kloiber said to Gorton.
"With my One Lexington director, Devine Carama," Gorton began to reply.
"You were not there. Point being, people are looking for something to address this systematically and just saying the police cannot stop this is not meaningful," Kloiber continued.
"I highly encourage you to have conversations with our police, face to face, and find out the facts of these shootings. There is nothing our police could have done to prevent the shooting last night," Gorton said.
Lexington Police Chief Lawrence Weathers acknowledged how traumatic events like the incident last night on Tates Creek Road can be, but said his department is doing what they can.
"These things are difficult for everybody, but we have to stand firm by the process," Weathers said.
