The year 2023 is still young, and already there have been at least 146 mass shooting events in the U.S. on record, including the killing of five people in a Louisville bank. Photo: ripster8, Unsplash

After a June 17 shooting in South Fairmount, the total number of kids that have been shot in Cincinnati this year has climbed to 34; more than triple that of 2022.

Saturday’s shooting happened around 9 p.m. at the 2200 block of Quebec Road, according to the Cincinnati Police Department. Emergency response crews arrived to find a 16-year-old male victim on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound. He was transported to University of Cincinnati Medical Center where he later died from his injuries.

Police said the investigation is ongoing, adding to the growing number of shooting investigations that involve juvenile victims.

The overall frequency of shootings in the city is actually trending slightly downward compared to recent years, according to CincyInsights. But the age of the victims is skewing dramatically younger.

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According to CPD Lt. Jonathan Cunningham, 10 juveniles, or people younger than 18, were shot in all of 2022, but there have been 34 juvenile shooting victims so far in 2023.

“We don’t have a magic recipe for this, all we can do is keep giving our 110%,” Cunningham told CityBeat during a June 14 interview.

Less than one week before the most recent shooting in South Fairmount, two 15-year-olds and one 18-year-old were shot in the same neighborhood on Westwood Avenue in what investigators believe was a drive-by shooting. Of the three people who were shot, two sustained non-life-threatening injuries, but a third was listed as “serious.”

In May, another drive-by shooting happened in broad daylight at Grant Park in Over-the-Rhine, injuring three children, ages 10, 14 and 15, as well as a man in his 20s. Community members have reportedly asked CPD for added police presence at the park after the shooting.

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This article appears in Jun 14-27, 2023.