COLUMBUS (WCMH) – Ninty-six homicides in Columbus and  there are still four months left in the year.

Communities are pleading for people to put down the guns, but each day, there seems to be more violence.

In speaking with several people where the latest homicide happened, they say they’re living in fear, afraid to speak out. They’re watching children get caught in the crossfire and want it to stop, but the deadly trend goes on.

“I cannot tell you funerals we have had here at my church in the last three months, and the person that got killed wasn’t even 22 years old,” said Pastor Jonathan Sanders of Victory Deliverance Church.

The latest homicide victim in the city was 21 years old.

Investigators said he was shot and killed out on his front stoop, where there were kids out front playing and the victim’s mother had just come home from getting groceries.

“Homicides are up, felonious assaults are way up, and we haven’t had a lot of help from the community,” said Columbus Police Department Sgt. Eric Pilya.

It’s a trend the city has seen all summer.

“Man, it’s sad,” Sanders said. “It hurts to the heart.”

Sanders said the saying, “snitches get stitches,” is still present in many communities, allowing criminals to run free and strike fear.

“So you got people literally living next door to murderers, gangbangers, rapist, thugs and won’t say nothing,” Sanders said.

He wants the community to step up and speak out, even if it’s anonymously, adding that the violence in the city is only getting worse and something needs to change.

“Neighborhood watches coming back together, and I think the police presence would help some more,” Sanders said.

The neighborhood watch is something community members in Linden have been talking aobut for a little while.

Again, fear is playing a major role in getting people to come forward.

Sanders also said there’s no one solution to this problem and that the police, the community and the city must all work together.