South Bend officials are hopeful that gun violence is trending downward, but a series of shootings Tuesday night raised some concerns. Police say three shootings in less than an hour left two people injured.
Mayor James Mueller says some incidents can be hard to prevent. “Domestic issues, where it could be a murder or a murder-suicide . . . those are hard to predict, hard to really have a strategy to get on top of it,” Mueller said during the city's quarterly public safety update Wednesday.
While there is a mobile crisis team available, Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski said it isn’t used when an individual is armed. Still, he encouraged people to contact police, if they fear “something bad’s about to happen.”
"We can intervene," Ruszkowski said. "We don’t always have to make arrests, but we can absolutely stop something before it does."
In their quarterly update, city officials said gun violence incidents were down six percent in the first six months of 2026, compared to the same period last year. The number of victims of shooting crimes was unchanged.
