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Houston has seen a noticeable uptick in violent crimes recently and one city council member has expressed her concerns publicly and her plans to "cleanup" an area of the city that was recently the scene of a shooting.
Councilwoman Abbie Kamin (D-District C) took to Twitter to express her thoughts on the recent crimes.
"The bar noise and violence along Washington Ave and throughout #Houston is out of control," Kamin tweeted on June 9. "While I continue to work with HPD, we are bringing attention to the area this weekend with a Washington Ave community cleanup, in partnership with @VoteAnnJohnson and civic groups."
It was along Houston's popular Washington Avenue corridor that a drive-by shooting at a hookah bar injured five people. ABC 13 reported three men and two women were hurt in the shooting and each had non-life threatening injuries.
"Like all major cities, Houston continues to see an increase in violent crime," Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said in a statement posted on the police department's twitter page. "We must all come together as a community. We hope that all criminal justice partners work together to stem the increase in violence."
As of June 9, Houston has experienced approximately 200 homicides in 2021, with six people shot in five different areas in just one night. At least three of those people were killed.
"The HPD will continue – as we have during the pandemic – to adjust resources, strategies and staffing to combat this increase in violence," Finner said in his statement. "Still, our criminal justice partners must come together in the interest of public safety."
Finner went on to encourage courts to resume "more normal operations" so the criminal justice system could keep moving forward after an arrest.
A boxing gym owner wants to do something to keep young Houstonians from becoming part of the city's homicide statistics.
According to a breakdown of the cities 200 homicides, so far 28 victims were children under the age of 18, 24 of whom were killed in a shooting.