190 Days Without a Homicide
A violent shooting at a community event in Lexington, Kentucky, abruptly ended a record-breaking 190-day period without a homicide. The article reflects on the personal and community impact of gun violence in a city struggling to maintain safety.
Why it matters
It highlights the fragility of progress in urban violence reduction and the lasting trauma inflicted on local communities.
How a record stretch of peace ended in my hometown.
Mairo Cinquetti / NurPhoto / Getty September 20, 2026, 7 AM ET Share Save J enee Gragston dropped to the ground and held on to the grass as if it could save her life. She yelled to her family members to get down. She later told me that she didn’t know where the bullets were coming from, but she knew they were close. When the firing stopped, the cries began. She could hear her 4-year-old nephew howling: “Get it off me! Get it off me!” She wasn’t close enough to see what had happened, but it looked like he had blood on his chest. A teenage boy was lying near the child. The teenager “never screamed or anything,” she said. “I can still see all of it.”
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