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EBR District Attorney concerned about high homicide numbers

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BATON ROUGE – A violent Fourth of July in the capital city added to this year's rise in homicides. 

Two people were killed and another six were injured in three separate shootings.

We have to find a way to stop this,” said EBR District Attorney Hillar Moore.

Moore says the amount of crime going on right now is concerning.

Right now we are around 15 or 16 homicides above what we were last year,” said Moore. “It’s as if we've had two summers because summertime is when people are out of school, it's hot, tempers flare."

Moore says typically, crime increases in the summer but with the pandemic that spike started earlier than usual. 

“I believe that it's drugs, gangs, youth, idle time. All of that together makes for a really bad time here,” said Moore.

So far there have been more than 50 homicides in the area causing the workload at Moore’s office to stack up. 

“We're so far behind with just existing cases, particularly homicide, really major type cases and now we have this burden on us and we have a whole half of the year to go,” he said.

That’s why Moore says something needs to change or else we may see the highest number of homicides in a year on record. 

“Hopefully we can find a way to slow things down,” said Moore. “People will get back to work, and go back to school in the summer. Let's find a way to get back to where we were. Even where we were is not good. The numbers here are way too high for a city our size. Although it's been somewhat the norm here, we don't want it to be the norm. We have to find a way to do better."

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