KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Five killings in Kansas City, Missouri, during Christmas week brought the 2021 total to 156, making it the city’s second-deadliest year on record.

Only last year was worse, when Kansas City had 179 homicides. This year topped the 151 killings that occurred in 2017 and 2019 and the 153 killings seen in 1993.

The entire Kansas City metropolitan area, including the Kansas suburbs, has seen 215 homicides in 2021, the Kansas City Star reported.

Mayor Quinton Lucas, on Twitter, said the city will “never stop trying” to reduce the number of killings, calling it Kansas City’s “greatest challenge.”

From Dec. 21 through Dec. 25, five people ranging in age from 30 to 46 were killed in Kansas City.

On Dec. 21, a father of eight was shot and killed in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the 8700 block of N. Kansas Place.

A day later, a man was fatally stabbed around 11 p.m. in front of an apartment building in the 2700 block of E. Linwood. Just hours after that, at about 2:45 a.m., a man was shot in front of a home in the 6800 block of NE Ridgeway Ave.

On Christmas Eve, a man was found dead from a shooting outside a home in the 4000 block of Monroe around 7:30 a.m.

Then on Christmas Day at about 11:45 a.m., a man was found fatally shot inside a car in the 4900 block of Raytown Road.