Overdose deaths rise, homicides drop for 2019

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Drug overdose deaths are up while homicides are down in Warren County, according to the annual Warren County Coroner’s Office report released Thursday.

“Recently we have had several homicides in a very short period of time which seems to people that there is a bigger number of homicides that have occurred. But, actually, in 2019, we have had 5 homicides compared to 7 last year in 2018,” said Warren County Coroner Kevin Kirby.

Overdose deaths are up 61.5 percent from 2018. In 2019, 20 people died from drug overdoses. That number could increase because the coroner’s office is waiting on toxicology screenings on six bodies. In 2018, overdose deaths claimed 13 lives in Warren County.

Coroner Kevin Kirby said opioids and overall growth in the community are driving that increase.

Homicides have dropped 28.5 percent from seven in 2018 to five in 2019.

“The bigger the population gets then the more of these instances we’ll have because the more people you have, the more homicides you’ll have. It is not going to go down as the city gets bigger, it is not going to fall. So you will have more drug activity and I think if you look at the homicide rate in Nashville, in Bowling Green, in Louisville and the surrounding areas, it has gone up, and talking to other coroners around the state, Lexington, they all see an increase in those homicide rates,” said Kirby.

Policing the fastest growing city in Kentucky can be a challenge, but the Bowling Green Police Department have a chaplain who helps families of the deceased in times of crisis.

“You have got emotions there; you have got people who know their loved one is deceased. You’ve got anger, you have all of that range of emotion that there is no one to deal with it. and the police can’t deal with it because they are busy doing what they are paid to do, what they are called to do, so the chaplain kind of stands in the gap there,” said Pastor Bill Wade, Bowling Green Police Department Chaplain.

Standing in that gap gives the family someone to talk to and allows law enforcement to do their jobs.

“It helps the family understand that the Bowling Green Police Department do care about this community. I have seen that side of it. Unfortunately, sometimes the community does not. But, the officers, the men and women, that serve and protect Bowling Green really have the sacrificial love for the community and the people in it,” said Wade.

Drowning deaths also decreased from three in 2018 to none last year.

Automobile collisions caused 13 deaths in 2019 up from 11 in 2018.

In total, the coroner’s office conducted 810 cases in 2019.