Lexington is moving forward with an updated plan to address gun violence.
The city saw a record high of 44 homicides and 119 nonfatal shootings in 2022. As of last year, those numbers have dropped by around 50 percent. There were 65 nonfatal shootings in 2024, and 22 homicides.
Devine Carama is the director of ONE Lexington, a city initiative that has worked to stop those incidents. He says much of the plan involves more community engagement.
“Instead of ONE Lexington, the city government doing everything, how about taking some of that money, investing it in a non-profit, and supporting them and allowing them to drive the work? Another thing that came out was more accessible community centers, safe places for young people to go.”
Carama says much of the organization’s work involves finding the root causes of violence and preventing shootings before they happen. He says the city will operate under the updated plan for the next three-to-five years.
“There's so many things that came out of this strategic plan, we are excited to partner with you, the community, to make those things happen. And hey, we may never see zero homicides, zero shootings, but we're never going to stop working until we do,” he said.
Lexington announced its updated plan alongside a visit from Cities United, an organization that works with cities across the country to help create similar gun violence plans.
Cities United Executive Director Anthony Smith says he’d like to see more youth outreach. Ten people in the 10-to-29 age range were killed by gun violence last year. In 2021, that number was 24.
“We think there's more work you can do with young people,” Smith said. “We think you can actually fortify and create a council that young people can help run. We think their cross-sector collaboration needs to be stronger.”
The nonprofit is also granting $100,000 dollars to ONE Lexington, and awarding stipends to those involved in the discussions.
Lexington’s updated gun violence plan is available here.
