RICHMOND, Va. -- The number of killings in Richmond is the highest it has been in 15 years.
Crime Insider sources say a man killed his brother in Shockoe Bottom on Monday afternoon, sending the total number of homicides so far this year to 72.
Monica Murphy is a mom that has been keeping count, since her son, Kendall Forbey, joined the list of victims in late June.
"He's the 29th on the homicide list for city of Richmond," Murphy said.
He was walking home from a club in Shockoe Bottom when he was shot to death.
"Within 148 days, there have been another 43 homicides in Richmond," said Murphy. She said it's hard to keep up with the deaths our city has endured.
Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin agreed with her sentiment.
"We are sitting here at a 20-year high in murder rate in Virginia, and some of our great cities, like Richmond, are ranked in the top 65 deadliest cities in America," Youngkin said at a round table discussion over the weekend.
Youngkin told a large group of law enforcement leaders that this meeting was the first of many he plans to hold to help save lives and build community trust.
"To comprehensively fund law enforcement with increased salaries and training budgets,” said Youngkin. “And to make sure we protect qualified immunity so our officers aren't faced with frivolous civil lawsuits and we have to increase the pipeline of people coming into law enforcement to make it a job Virginians want to take."
Murphy would like to see more detectives. "They keep getting swamped with more homicide cases,” Murphy said. “It ain't doing nothing but pushing our cases back further."
"To the person that may know something, stop letting it burden and weigh on you,” she added. “Go and tell someone, whether it's Crime Stoppers, email someone or tell a friend. Let somebody know and take that weight off of you."
