DETROIT (myFOXDetroit.com) -
It has been a violent two weeks in Detroit. There have been 32 murders in just 15 days, and that doesn't include non-fatal shootings.
"These are not just people that are dying. These are husbands and fathers and sons and uncles and brothers and good people," said Angela Nelson.
Her husband, a father of five, was one of them. Balloons float in front of the house where David Nelson was visiting on Sheridan Street in Detroit two weeks ago just down the street from where he grew up. Police say a fight broke out between a couple. A man went to shoot his girlfriend, but Nelson pushed her out of the way and took the bullet himself.
Nelson lived through the war in Iraq and even earned a Purple Heart by saving his crew from a roadside bomb, but he couldn't survive the streets of Detroit.
"Even if the bullets didn't hit my husband, he was not justified at all. I mean, I don't know who people think they are to take the life of somebody else," Angela Nelson said.
David Nelson was one of the 32 people killed in Detroit over the last 15 days. It's the largest spike in homicides in as many days in the city's history.
To date, 277 people have been murdered in Detroit compared 259 at this same time last year.
"It's sad. It makes you scared to go outside. It makes you intimidated by everything," Nelson remarked.
The head of homicide, Lieutenant Dwayne Blackmon, said very few cases are random. Many of the murders are fueled by anger. The new, 12-hour police patrol shifts may help by providing more of a police presence to stop the violence from escalating, but he said nothing will really change until people in Detroit stop solving their problems with gun violence.
We're learned there were around 140 shootings during that same 15 day time period.
Nelson, who struggles every day knowing her children will grow up without a father, does feel grateful about one thing. Unlike so many out there, her husband's murder was solved.
"It does make you feel better that the guy's not out there, but it definitely doesn't make it any better," she said.
We're told out of the 32 homicides, twelve cases have been closed.
Detroit Police (Credit: myFOXDetroit.com)
