CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In 2019, Charlotte is on pace to double the number of homicides from last year.
Right now, there have been 57 homicides in Charlotte. In all of 2018, there were 58 murders.
The community meeting discussing the uptick of violence in Charlotte was at capacity Tuesday. Members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and city leaders discussed how to make this deadly trend stop.
While police are answering the call out on the streets, inside the walls of the Belmont Center, people are trying to find an answer to stop the violence.
"We've got to get young people to realize if you make a decision to pick up a gun this is not television," said Willie Ratchford, Executive Director of the Community Relations Committee. "You're not going to kill somebody and be on the show next week."
NBC Charlotte talked to Chief Putney one on one about the city’s violent crime just days before the public meeting.
In the past eight days, there have been several shootings in Charlotte. That includes a 19-year-old pregnant woman shot at a strip mall on Beatties Ford Road over the weekend. A woman who knows the victim said she is improving, as is her baby girl who was delivered at the hospital.
“She’s strong and the baby’s strong, and they’re fighters,” the woman previously told NBC Charlotte.
However just last week, another teenager did not make it.
Police say 17-year-old Alysha Johnson was shot and killed on Beatties Ford Road. Investigators believe the crime started as a robbery.
"She got shot eight times," Evelyn Poe said. "They told her...asked her give it up or something. They said she wouldn't give it up and next thing they start shooting."
Just days later, a 15-year-old girl was found shot on Mulberry Pond Drive.
CMPD's Chief Kerr Putney said gun violence is largely to blame for the city's homicide rate.
Chief Putney told NBC Charlotte that gun violence is largely to blame for the city’s homicide rate. 57 people have been murdered this year, compared to 58 homicides in all of 2018.
“We’re seeing a lot of young people grab a gun and settle a minor difference,” Chief Putney previously told NBC Charlotte.
Charlotte's Mayor Vi Lyles said this should be personal to everyone. The troubling trend has Mayor Lyles alongside other councilmembers calling for unity.
"What I'm asking you to do is tell the truth about what we need and let's get going so we can do this together," Lyles said.
In a one-on-one interview with NBC Charlotte, Chief Putney previously expressed his frustration about electronic monitoring devices.
Police say since January, at least 15 people have committed new crimes while wearing an ankle monitor for a previous crime.
“There’s no accountability, all you have is a monitor,” Chief Putney said. “It does not prevent you from continuing your criminality, that's our issue."
Chief Putney also said his focus is not on the homicide rate, but rather on the families impacted.
“I don’t think about the rate, that’s the truth," Chief Putney previously told NBC Charlotte. "I think about the families that have been devastated, that’s who my heart goes out to."