What a difference five months make.

It was only July that St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff Mike Tregre cited crime cameras, better training, manpower restructuring and tips from local residents as “key reasons” for a reduction in the number of homicides from 2014 to 2015.

There were eight criminal homicides in 2014 in St. John, according to crime statistics supplied by the Sheriff’s Office. There were zero in the parish through July of this year.

At the time, Tregre said reducing the homicide rate is the Sheriff’s Office’s No. 1 priority in 2015.

Unfortunately, the good news didn’t last.

A body was found Sept. 16 in Garyville, the victim killed after being shot in the head multiple times.

It took two days and the help of the Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory for local authorities to identify the fallen as 26-year-old Kentrell Hayes.

The crime took place in St. John Parish Councilman Ranney Wilson’s district. At the time, Wilson warned police officers can’t sit outside every house all the time.

“I was in the law enforcement for 10 years, I know things happen,” Wilson said.

“I’ve been there, I’ve seen it and I’ve experienced it. I hope they catch the person responsible for this.”

His warning that police can’t be everywhere turned prophetic.

The killings have continued to come, the most brazen of which may have taken place Saturday when a broad daylight gunfight put one local man in the hospital and another one in the grave — the startling violence marking the sixth homicide of 2015. Put another way, the fatal killing this weekend resulted in the sixth death by homicide our parish has endured in the last 11 weeks.

Homicide-free we are no longer.

A half-dozen people have been killed in our parish since Labor Day. That’s not exactly the Christmas card we want to hang from the mantel.