LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A violent weekend in Lexington has left two people dead and a juvenile with life-threatening injuries in separate shooting incidents.
Police discovered two gunshot victims near the public library on Russell Cave Road around 3:30 a.m. on Saturday. At the scene, 69-year-old Deborah Weiss admitted to shooting the victims – 52-year-old Edward Parker and 71-year-old Ashim Heanacho, according to police.
Both victims died from their injuries, and Weiss was charged with two counts of murder.
During an arraignment Monday afternoon, Weiss entered a not guilty plea, and a judge appointed a public defender on her behalf. She remains held on a $1 million bond.
Just 24 hours after the double homicide, police found a juvenile shot at Canter Pointe Apartments on Tates Creek Road. The victim was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police have not made an arrest in this case.
"For me, my heart breaks for all of the families that have been affected and we just gotta continue coming together as a city," said Devine Carama, activist and director of One Lexington.
Despite the weekend violence, data shows Lexington has seen 30 shootings so far this year, significantly lower than the four-year average of 62 shootings by this point. The city has reported 15 homicides by gun so far this year, compared to the average of 17 by this time.
However, community leaders emphasize that statistics don't tell the whole story.
"Even though numbers are coming down, that doesn't comfort a church that recently experienced a mass shooting or a family that lost a loved one, so I think as a city, we can't get too caught up in the numbers and whether they're high or low. We need to continue this fight," Carama said.
Carama and other community leaders are focused on prevention strategies moving forward.
"How are we mitigating retaliatory violence, how are we using data and markers to identify those who are most likely to get into that cycle of violence, then creating preventative programming and resources for those young people," Carama said.
