× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

Fourteen people have been killed due to violence in the city of Richmond so far this year, amounting to a slaying every four days.

That sets the city on a deadly path to quickly surpass last year’s total of 39 homicides, or 44 counting five others police say were justified or remain unresolved.

The Richmond Police Department only counts 12 of this year’s 14 as homicides — two others are being called death investigations, and may not make the department’s list at all since police don’t count what they call “justifiable” or self-defense killings.

Police Chief Alfred Durham said the rate is alarming, especially considering that during the same period last year, the city had only two slayings.

Durham addressed the spike during a news conference Thursday, focusing most of his comments on six of the homicides that his department has classified as related to domestic violence, and offering solutions he hopes will curb future domestic violence and gun violence.

“This is an extraordinary number when you compare it with last year,” he said. “In all of 2015, we only had three domestic-related homicides.”