NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) -
This has been a violent summer in Nashville. In fact just this week, several shootings have left six people wounded and one dead.
And police said most of the people involved in the crime have a violent past and shouldn't have been out of prison.
Police have talked about the increase in violent crime for some time, but now there is a greater focus on the noticeable problem.
"I'm just hurt - not only as a community advocate, but as a mother of a murdered son, and a concerned citizen that our young black men are just killing each other," said anti-violence activist Clemmie Greenlee.
Greenlee said violent crime in the city is out of control.
"Quit talking about what we should do. That's not working. You done had enough seminars, enough panels. And I'm still going to five or six funerals a month," she said.
Police are concerned, too. While the number of murders is even compared to this point last year, aggravated assaults, which include shootings, are up 17 percent.
"They're not just random acts of violence. There is something going on. The two individuals know one another," said Metro Police Lt. Gordon Howey.
Officers also point out that most of the crime this summer has involved people, they believe, who had no business being free. For instance, Thursday's triple shooting on Gallatin Pike involved Alan B. Beverly, who had two felony cocaine convictions and received two eight-year sentences just last year, and Timothy L. Brown, who was convicted last year of felony aggravated assault and burglary and was given two 10-year sentences.
But both men were released early by the Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole.
"Had they been incarcerated, serving out the sentences imposed by the court, then certainly we wouldn't have had the incident we had last night that ended in one person dead and two persons injured," Howey said.
Police said they continue to talk with state lawmakers about imposing tougher sentencing laws to help prevent future incidents and curb the increase in violence.
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