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Kalamazoo faces wave of gun violence

The Gun by Auraelius is licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Gun violence is at an all-time high in Kalamazoo. That's the message city commissioners got from Public Safety officials Monday. Deputy Chief David Boysen says 13 people were shot to death in 2020. Three have died so far this year. And Boysen says those responsible are getting younger - and more heavily armed:

"This type of ammunition will penetrate a bulletproof vest, will penetrate walls of houses, vehicles - rifles, lasers, they're more armed than our average patrol officer out here with the type of firepower that we are seeing," said Boysen.

Boysen says Kalamazoo's Group Violence Intervention program will resume this summer. But he says it will only be able to target 12 offenders because of the pandemic.