The Council on Criminal Justice issued a report earlier this year that shows the number of homicides in the U.S. during the first half of 2021 increased by 16% compared to the same period last year. The number of homicides in 2020 compared to 2019 rose by 25%, according to an FBI preliminary report. It was the largest increase since the FBI began releasing annual homicide figures in the 1960s. The spike in violent crime came as the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the country.

This year’s murder rate in Fayetteville is unprecedented. As of Nov. 17, 43 people were killed by others. Arrests have been made in 33 of the cases. That exceeds the highest annual homicide number by 12.

“There is no one answer to what’s going on,” Police Chief Gina Hawkins told Up & Coming Weekly. “There are so many guns in our community.”

She says that people are impatient having been locked away in their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hawkins said that unlike previous years, homicides here are city-wide.

“In Fayetteville, the number one reason for murder was drug-related robberies,” Hawkins said, noting that murder is almost impossible to prevent.