There sure have been a lot of homicides in Lawrence lately

• motherearthnews.com
• Violent crime is up in Larryville.

Here in Kansas City, where roughly two people are murdered every week, we’re rather inured to lethal violence. Forty miles west, though, in sleepy Lawrence, Kansas, homicides are relatively rare. In fact, there were exactly zero slayings in Lawrence in 2009. Same with 2010. And 2011. Also 2012.

Something started to change in the 90,000-person city last year, though. In July, 51-year-old Gary Edens was killed in his driveway. In November, 61-year-old Margaret Hopkins was shot by her husband in what some have characterized as a mercy killing. Wayne Francisco, 33, was fatally stabbed, allegedly by his girlfriend, on Christmas Day 2013. There was the very bizarre killing, this past January, of Cici’s Pizza franchise owner Harold Sasko. And in March, Patrick Roberts, 39, was killed at his Lawrence apartment.

Yesterday, there was another.

A 26-year-old man, who has not yet been identified, was shot after an altercation at a Mother’s Day cookout near 13th and Haskell. He later died at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

That brings the tally to six homicides in Lawrence in less than a year, following nearly a half-decade without a single one. It’s unclear at this point what to attribute this to, but not a great trend.