LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB)-- On a day full of celebration and talk of a new day in Louisville, new Mayor Craig Greenberg is sworn into office on a day that an old problem is also making headlines.
"Becoming a safer and a more just city is essential to everything we do," Greenberg said during his inauguration speech on Monday.
Louisville is dealing with three homicides in the first two days of 2023.
"Obviously that is not the way we wanted to started off the new year," LMPD Assistant Chief Aaron Crowell said.
On Jan. 1, 28-year-old Reginald Speight was shot dead on West Gaulbert Avenue.
Just after midnight on Jan. 2, a man was killed in a vehicle on East Oak Street. He would later die at the hospital.
Also on the second day of the new year, a man was shot and killed on Beechwood Avenue, not far from Baxter Avenue.
"We heard two booms," a neighbor said. “All we saw were a lot of police and a lot of blue lights. After you hear a gunshot, you don’t want to go outside and check it out. My PTSD is off the chart.”
The killings are not exactly "off-trend." There were at least 160 homicides in Louisville in 2022.
Map of 160 homicides in Louisville, Ky. in 2022. (WDRB Graphic)
"I think in a lot of ways we have made a lot of good progress in the last year, but obviously we still have a long way to go," Crowell said.
"I'm just hoping that the new administration will maybe come up with some different things, maybe we haven't seen before, that can bear some fruit," said Community Activist Christopher 2X.
Those new ideas are only part of it, 2X explained, an about-face from the people who live a life of crime and violence also has to happen.
"You kind of need both," said 2X.
Until then, 2X worries, the deadly trend is likely to continue.
LMPD does not believe any of the shootings are related. Police said investigators do have some leads.
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