Despite a mass stabbing Wednesday that left five people injured at Dyke Industries and a spate of shootings days earlier, Tallahassee is still a safe community, said Tallahassee Police Department Interim Chief Steve Outlaw.

In his first press conference since taking the position in July, Outlaw said the stabbing appeared "completely isolated."

Investigators are looking into what led employee Antwann D. Brown, 41, to go on a stabbing spree following a verbal altercation less than 30 minutes after he clocked in to the Maryland Circle distribution center off Hartsfield Road.

Outlaw said he's often confronted with rising concern about Tallahassee's safety, to which he responds, "Tallahassee is a safe community."

He said many violent incidents that capture headlines spring from suspects and victims who know each other and are involved in illegal acts.

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"Typically speaking — and again there’s not a cookie-cutter response to this — but as long as you’re not dealing in or selling dope, or trying to steal somebody’s dope, generally speaking, you’re in a safe community,” Outlaw said.

However, for many residents, the city feels more dangerous than that. This weekend, the community surpassed its 50th shooting of 2019. The capital city and county have seen at least 51 shootings so far, resulting in 14 killed and 39 injured, a Tallahassee Democrat interactive analysis reports.

Early Saturday morning, a fatal shooting took place near the 1700 block of Normandy Boulevard in Brittany Estates.

Also on Saturday, in an unrelated incident, a teenager was killed outside Regal Cinemas. Police officers reported he was gunned down by a 16-year-old after a parking lot argument.

Less than 24 hours later, police responded to an incident in which a 15-year-old accidentally shot an acquaintance at a vigil for the victim in Saturday's Regal Cinemas shooting.

TPD provides few details about active investigations. The full picture of the violence is further clouded because the agency declines to release information about victims, pointing to its interpretation of Marsy's Law.

Despite a dip in overall criminal offenses, Leon County hasn't shaken the dubious distinction of having Florida's highest crime rate for the fifth straight year, as noted in the annual Uniform Crime Report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, issued this summer.

More residents and civic, religious and elected leaders are calling for action to address gun violence, especially in recent months.

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Outlaw said the theater and vigil shootings happened between acquaintances. A motive is still under investigation for the Brittany Estates shooting. He said community aftercare resources will be offered to help employees at Dyke Industries traumatized by the stabbings.

"We do the best we can to provide immediate counseling as needed, but we also help them get plugged into other resources in the community,” Outlaw said. “We write our (police) reports. We go home. We do reflect on it, because it’s very much a tragedy. But in those folks' lives, they can’t shut it off when we turn our reports in … They are going to be haunted by this to various degrees.”

Contact TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com or follow @TaMarynWaters on Twitter.