HOUSTON – Between Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 17 people including four teenagers were shot in Houston, the most of any weekend this year and part of a growing trend of violence in the city.
“We haven’t seen this kind of violence, since the late 80s and early 90s when crack first hit the streets here in Houston,” said Doug Griffith, the president of the Houston Police Officers Union.
Mayor Sylvester Turner began his Monday press conference addressing the shootings, instead of COVID-19, calling his administration’s commitment to reducing crime “our top priority.”
“We cannot blame everything on the pandemic in Houston,” Turner said. “We have a situation that we need to address in our city.”
Of the 17 people shot over the weekend, six did not survive their injuries. Most of the other victims are recovering at local hospitals.
“The problem is we’re not keeping these kids or adults locked up,” Griffith said. “They get repeat bonds. I mean how many times have we seen this. We have over 90 people that were killed in Harris County alone in the last two years that were released on multiple felony bonds.”
HPD Chief Art Acevedo also weighed in on the crime issue.
“Our community/region had too much gun violence this weekend. (HPD) will work tirelessly to bring perpetrators to account, but we can’t do our best without the public. We also need to have risk and not cash-based assessments on bail for violent criminals. We must do this,” he shared on Twitter.
Our community/region had too much gun violence this weekend. @houstonpolice will work tirelessly to bring perpetrators to account, but we can’t do our best without the public. We also need to have risk & not cash based assessments on bail for violent criminals. We must do this.
— Chief Art Acevedo (@ArtAcevedo) February 7, 2021