LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Dozens of people in Louisville lost their lives to gun violence in 2022 — 160 as of Dec. 30, according to the latest data from the Louisville Metro Police Department. That's an 8% decrease compared to 2021.

While that number is less than last year's death toll of 174, community activist Christopher 2X said it's still bad news. He has been tallying the city's violent shootings for years. 

"When you look at the human connection to this, there's not a doctor that I've talked to, or a survivor, or a kid, who feels that 2022 was that much better," 2X said.

LMPD Lt. Col. Steve Healey said that while he's glad there were less murders this year, far too many people were killed in the city in 2022.  

"The number that we have is still too high but we are trending in the right direction," Healey said.

Even so, Louisville has recorded over 100 homicides a year for three straight years. That means the number of people who lost their lives to gun violence since 2020 now surpasses 500 — and Healey said dozens of those victims were children.

"We had 14 victims, that were under 17 years old, of homicides this year," he said. "That's a tragic number."

2X said the triple-digit homicide rate is an indication that there's an "appetite" for violence. 

"The way these shootings have spread in all eight LMPD divisions, that's a game changer itself," he said. "We used to identify where, you know, where the epicenter of these shootings were going to occur at (first, second) and (fourth) division. Now you've got it in all eight LMPD divisions."

Healey said nearly 50% of Louisville's 2022 homicides have been solved. By comparison, Louisville's solved homicides from 2021 stands at 33.33%. 

"We refocused our CID, our Criminal Intelligence Division, to where they focus strictly on violent crime, violent offenders and not so much the smaller narcotics traffickers," said Healey, adding that the strategy allows officers to "focus on division-specific problems in the area."

The department is still 278 officers short, but Healey said it is boosting its recruiting efforts and community engagement with the goal of closing even more cases in 2023. 

That can't be accomplished without the community's involvement, Healey said. 

"We, as the police, we cannot solve these on our own," he said. "The community is a vital part and partner to solving these crimes."

As the ball prepares to drop in Times Square Saturday night to ring in a new year, Healey said LMPD is hopeful that violence will continue to trend downward as the focus on stopping violent crime continues. 

"I would have no reason to believe it wouldn't," he said. "Because of the practices that we've implemented."

Whether fewer lives will be lost in 2023 remains to be seen. Even though the number of fatal shootings is down in 2022, 2X believes "unless there's a reversal, one has to say we're on a trend for 100 a year until something else changes."

In addition to the 160 people who were shot to death in 2022, hundreds of other people were injured by gunfire — a total of 421 in 2022 versus 631 in 2021. That represents a 33% decrease, but both Healey and 2X said it's still too many.

Dr. Keith Miller, a trauma surgeon at UofL Health, said many of those shooting victims and their families will never be the same. 

"Each one of those injuries and each one of those fatalities is attached to a family that's essentially been destroyed, where the people, (the) most important people in their lives, they've lost," Miller said. 

Miller said he has witnessed families dealing with the tragic consequences of violence time and time again. 

"The range of emotions, it can play out very quickly initially after the injury. There's the typical grief, tremendous grief, anger," he said. "Often times you're there with a large family and you see that that whole family dynamic is going to change forever after these injuries, both in the fatal setting where they've lost that individual and in the nonfatal setting where you can see that the lives of those, a tremendous amount of time, is going to be spent in the rehabilitation process, trying to get that patient back or that individual back to the baseline if possible."

Anyone with information on any crime is asked to call LMPD's anonymous tip line at (502) 574-LMPD (5673). Tips can also be submitted anonymously online through the department's crime tip portal by clicking here.

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