Standing outside the Exxon gas station at the corner of Northside Drive and Hanging Moss Road in Jackson, you see a dozen candles near the vacuum and air pump station. The words "I love you," "ball in heaven" and "#LLK" remain spray-painted on the ground where 20-year-old Kenland Thompson, Jr. took his last breath.

"For his life to be so senselessly taken...it hurts," said LaQuoya Williams of Jackson.

She says it's been difficult mourning the loss of her cousin who was shot multiple times the night of April 1st while pumping air in his tires. Williams says he was found dead lying next to his car, with the air pump still in his hand.

"For his life to be so senselessly taken...it hurts."

"I didn't want my kids to leave my side for a whole week after this happened because of the anxiety. If I let my kids out of my eyesight... we go outside these doors... what may happen?" Williams says, "It places a big fear in you because he was just putting air in his tires."

The Jackson Police Department is reporting nearly 50 gun-related homicides so far this year, with many incidents occurring over consecutive days and sometimes within hours.

Jackson State University professor of criminology Kevin Levine says the anxieties associated with violent crimes can be detrimental to one's health, especially residents in predominantly Black communities.

"We already have issues in our society of hypertension, high blood pressure, all the things that are associated with the African American community. Now, you're thrown traumatic loss, you're thrown fear, fear of reprisal, fear of being out in the community just to go to the store. You're afraid that you might be a victim of a stray bullet," says Levine.

"We already have issues in our society of hypertension, high blood pressure... Now you're thrown traumatic loss, you're thrown fear..."

An increase in gun violence is seen nationwide. Many attribute the cause to stress of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, lack of mental health support and relaxed gun laws.

Jackson Police Chief James Davis says a lot of what's happening in the city is personal.

"In most of those crimes (domestic violence and homicide) stem from domestic dispute, retaliation, drugs, gangs, and many other circumstances which the offender knew their victim," says Davis.

The number of homicides in the Capital City has increased over the past few years. In 2019, city officials reported 82 homicides. In 2020, the number of murders nearly doubled that. Law enforcement officials believe if trends continue, the number of gun-related murders could match or outpace last year's total.

JPD public information officer Sam Brown says one of the challenges policing neighborhoods is having limited boots on the ground.

"Our dispatchers field or answer an average of 2,000 calls per day and give to officers to go out and serve the citizens. And when you have a shortage of officers, a lot of times they get backed up," says Brown.

Brown says the current climate of policing in America has also made it difficult to recruit.

Even if the department is able to increase its number of officers, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba says he doesn't believe that's going to be enough to have a lasting impact on violent crimes in the city.

"So when people decide to kill someone in a home... when people try to kill someone within a private setting, the likelihood is no matter how many officers you have they won't be in place to stop that conflict. So, we not only need to focus on the what we need to focus on the why," says Lumumba.

" We not only need to focus on the what, we need to focus on the why."

Mayor Lumumba says that means increasing the number of credible messengers in the community that can intervene and advise those engaged in conflict. And, also increase social resources residents depend on such as counseling and financial support.

This week, the Jackson City Council called a special meeting with federal, state and local leaders to address the city's increasing homicide rate.

Second District Congressman Bennie Thompson is encouraging the city to consider federal grant programs.

"It's my district, my community like it is everyone else's." Thompson says, "The last thing we can't do is let mediocrity cause us to fail by somehow accepting that it has to be this way. It really does not."

Dozens  marched from the state Capitol to Jackson City Hall in recent weeks, several carrying posters bearing the names and faces of victims of gun-violence. LaQuoya Williams prays justice will be served in her cousin's case and that no other family has to experience the same trauma.