Bystanders watch as police investigate a shooting outside of a barber shop where nine people were shot Wednesday. Joshua Lott/Getty Images

Gun violence in Detroit has claimed 17 lives in the past 10 days, according to police tasked with patrolling a city where economic turmoil, empty houses and high unemployment have lent itself to creeping lawlessness.

On Sunday, a baby girl was delivered after her mother was shot dead, but later died in the hospital, on the city’s west side. Wednesday, a promising law student was found in her car in a vacant lot after she was shot in the head. The same day, three men were killed and six wounded after gunfire erupted in a barbershop known for gambling. Meanwhile the killing of a teenage girl, shot in the head last Saturday on a stranger’s porch while asking for help after a car accident, has increased racial tensions in the city.

The list of killing goes on.

Police say the deaths in the past week bring the total homicides for 2013 to 292.

“The reality of it is we’ve had a violent week of crime. Everyone in this department is very cognizant of it. But at some point, the public has to take culpability and be a part of the solution. It’s not just a Detroit Police Department problem, it’s a city of Detroit problem, and we all need to stand together,” Detroit Police Chief James Craig’s spokesman, Sgt. Michael Woody, told Detroit News.

Detroit filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in July, with a debt of about $18bn. The filing is the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, and the economic impact can be seen throughout the city in its abandoned buildings, vacant lots, and unemployment rates of over 18 percent.

Bill Nowling, a spokesman for the city’s emergency manager Kevin Orr, said the recent spate of killings highlighted the challenges facing the city and suggested prioritizing police activities in upcoming budget restructuring, according to Detroit News.