ATLANTA — Two months into 2022 and Atlanta's homicide rate is already two times what it was at this point last year. Atlanta Police Department is now collaborating with several other agencies to address the growing number.
Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said he's focused on getting to the root of what's causing the city's surging homicide rate and wants to identify and work toward solutions.
Those who have lost loved ones in the violence said the city needs to do something before another life is lost.
Today our Kaitlyn Ross spoke with Atlanta's police chief, who says he's focused on getting to the root of what's happening to identify solutions.
"I still wake up at his feeding times," Kerri Gray said. "I still, when I am in a rush, go to pick up his diaper bag and realize I don't need it. I still look for him in my rearview mirror. And he's not there and he never will be."
Gray lost her son Grayson Fleming Gray in a random shooting near Anderson Park last month.
The 6-month-old was riding in a car with his mom last month when a stray bullet struck and killed him. Two people are facing charges in his death.
On Thursday, Gray hosted an event at the garden she planted in his memory to mark one month without her child. Gray said the conflict between two people is now always impacting people who have nothing to do with it.
"If you keep killing off all these children, that's our future. You don't know what you just took away," she said.
Since her son died, Gray said she's dedicated her life to finding peaceful solutions to conflict.
"That initial fight or flight, that initial anger reaction, you want to think that you're cool, you're big you're bad. You think oh, 'you've got a knife, I've got a gun.' Instead of thinking: 'Is she worth it? Is this worth it? He stole $20 from me,' is $20 worth a life?" She said.
Bryant said investigators were moved by the case and determined to make quick arrests.
"You start operating from your heart, and you do what your heart tells you to do," Bryant said. "So that's what drove that case to be resolved so quickly. We were not moved by pure professionalism, but what their hearts told them to do."
Bryant says homicide investigators in the city work around the clock to respond to crime, but it will take a lot more to stop it.
That's why APD has launched a new anti-crime unit in collaboration with the Fulton County Sheriff's Office, Georgia State Patrol and Atlanta Corrections.
In the three weeks since they launched it, they've made 77 arrests, according to authorities.
"Murder, (aggravated) assault, armed robbery, (aggravated) stalking, child molestation, narcotics," Bryant listed the types of arrests. "So that tells you the people we are finding are the right people."
Gray said she is grateful for their hard work and appreciates their efforts to get criminals off the street, but she says for her baby boy, it's too late.
"There is no amount of condolences or 'I'm sorries' that will ever bring him back to my arms," she said.
APD's chief said police leaders across the United States are concerned with the rise in homicides specifically. He has a call with a number of other police chiefs of large cities and the FBI Thursday night to talk about what they're seeing and strategies to deal with it.