More than 160 people lost their lives to violent crime in D.C. this past year, as city officials struggle to address the rising homicide count for the second year in a row.

Homicides in the District rose 4 percent over 2018 to 166 people killed — that follows a 43 percent spike over the year prior.

The 2019 tally marks the most people killed in D.C. in a single year since 2008 when the city recorded 186 homicides.

Officials have blamed the upward trend in violence on the presence of illegal guns and have vowed to more aggressively pursue illegal gun recoveries and tighter penalties for people caught with them.

“Far too often, we have seen the irreversible damage that illegal guns in the hands of violent offenders does to the lives and fabric of our community,” said Police Chief Peter Newsham at a press conference this week. “So our primary focus on crime has always been and will continue to be removing illegal firearms from our neighborhoods.”

In November, law enforcement officers from D.C., Maryland and Virginia announced the initiative Project Guardian, a federal program from the U.S. Justice Department that seeks to better enforce existing gun laws.

In 2019, D.C. police recovered more than 2,050 illegal firearms, compared to 1,928 guns recovered the year prior.

The city has also invested resources in programs, including a violence interruption pilot, which officials hope will help curb the city’s violence.

This story originally appeared on WAMU.