TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Tallahassee Police Departments Maurice Holmes addressed Saturday night's shootings that left five people hurt. All three shootings appearing to be random acts of violence.
"If we could figure out how to get a hold and maybe get these individuals to stop these random acts," said Holmes. "Violent crime in the city would significantly go down."
Since the beginning of the year, the Tallahassee Police Department has responded to 167 shootings with 53 people hurt and 12 people killed.
The guns being used in these shootings? TPD says most of them were stolen.
Deputy Chief Holmes says since the beginning of the year, the department has reported 135 guns stolen in the city of Tallahassee.
But the biggest issue that TPD is working out right now is the age range of the people they're investigating and arresting are between 15 and 21 years old.
"That is the age group that we're going to have to get a hold on and get addressed and understand why this is occurring and try to put an end to it," said Holmes. "How can we stop it?"
Omega Lamplighters founder Royle King works with mentoring the age range in question. He says solving the problem of youth violence can't start after the shootings and should start with more funding to non-profits that mentor youth.
"The big thing is resources and funding for not just our program but programs like ours," said King. "In large part our program because we have an established track record of doing this. With those resources from the local community, we can enhance what we're doing."
Currently, no arrests have been made for the Saturday night shootings. One lead TPD has in the Cascades Park shooting is suspects that came from Georgia.
