The mother of Katrel Parker, 16, managed to reach her son after he collapsed Wednesday on the South Side.

He had been shot in the back, and he told her he was dying.

"No, you're not!" she remembers saying.

He tugged on her hair, the same way he had when he was a baby. And that was it.

Parker, who would have been a senior at Independence High School, became the 61st homicide victim in Columbus this year.

"They stole his life," said his mother, Honjay Boswell, 37. She sat crying outside her home on S. Champion Avenue yesterday, about eight blocks from where her son fell on Oakwood Avenue.

With Parker's death, there has been a 33 percent increase in Columbus homicides this year; there were 46 at this point in 2009.

Aggravated-assault statistics weren't available yesterday, but those familiar with street crime in Columbus said there has been a rash of shootings this summer and that violence appears to be on the rise.

Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman has called an emergency meeting with police and other city officials this morning to discuss what to do about the increase, said Dan Williamson, a spokesman for the mayor.

Police Chief Walter Distelzweig met with his deputy chiefs yesterday afternoon on the same issue, said Sgt. David Pelphrey, a police spokesman.

In April, city officials announced the Columbus Police Gun Violence Reduction Program. They said then that it was "proactive" and "intelligence-based" and would involve analyzing crime data to anticipate problem areas in Columbus. They gave few other details about how the program would work.

The program is in its 13th week, Pelphrey said.

"They have had some concrete successes in collecting weapons," Williamson said. "But we have a problem that needs something additional."

The number of violent incidents seems to be up, and so does the "viciousness of the violence," said Dr. John Drstvensek, chief medical officer of Mid-Ohio Emergency Services, which provides emergency services at Grant Medical Center and Riverside and Dublin Methodist hospitals.

"We're seeing multiple gunshot wounds (to an individual victim), multiple stab wounds," he said. "In years past, it might just have been one."

There are a number of explanations, including gangs, drugs and the economy, said Gregory Jefferson, president of Community for New Direction, an urban-outreach organization. Teenagers have grown up seeing violence on television, and some don't hesitate to be violent themselves, he said.

Jefferson and others are trying to help. His group taught kids in 18 Columbus schools this past school year about mediation techniques and other ways to "de-escalate" tense situations, he said.

Derrick Russell, 40, founder of Listen Good Youth in the University District, organized a group of kids in Weinland Park yesterday to go to an Ohio State football clinic. Russell is a former gang member and can still feel the bullet lodged near his spine from a shooting years ago.

Lequan Gibson, 14, a graduate of Listen Good Youth, was in the park, too. He said that in his neighborhood, any kid with money can get a gun from an adult.

"If a kid came to them with $200, you got money and I'm going to give you a weapon," he said. "They know what they're gonna do with it."

Police said that both suspects in the Wednesday evening homicide had guns and fired them at Katrel Parker.

Darrick Dawson, 16, of 3265 Penfield Rd., and Jaymie Eugene-Jamar Prince, 17, of 250 Chatterton Lane, are each charged with a delinquency count of murder.

After the shooting, authorities say, Dawson and Prince ran into the nearby Family Missionary Baptist Church at 996 Oakwood Ave., where a Bible study was going on. Police arrested them once the Bible study was over.

Last night, about 60 of Parker's family members and friends, carrying candles and balloons, marched slowly up Oakwood Avenue to the place where he fell on Wednesday. Many cried and wailed uncontrollably. The mourners recited the Lord's Prayer and released the balloons.

Russell Barlow, the boyfriend of Parker's mother, was there. He said Parker was supposed to have started a job yesterday at the Kroger on the South Side. Parker, he said, wanted to save money and surprise his mother by moving her to another place.

"How many kids do that?" Barlow asked.

Parker, he said, was just a couple of credits short of a high-school diploma.

Dawson, Prince and Parker were all enrolled at Independence High last year, according to a spokeswoman for Columbus schools. Parker's family members said that Dawson and Prince had fought with him before, but they weren't sure why.

Prince and Dawson have faced multiple delinquency charges during the past two years, according to Franklin County Juvenile Court records. Both received probation for their offenses.

Prince was convicted of a delinquency count of carrying a concealed weapon after he was found to have a handgun in his "bag/backpack and a magazine with four live rounds in his front right pocket" in June 2008. He also has been convicted of receiving stolen property, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and disorderly conduct.

Dawson was convicted of disorderly conduct after a March fistfight with another student. Parker's mother said that other student was her son. Dawson also has been convicted of theft and complicity to petty theft.

Parker was on the track team at Independence, said Tevael Parker, 16, his twin brother. He liked to play basketball and always had good grades, his brother said.

Parker's mother said she tried to keep him close to home. Boswell didn't want him on the streets.

"My son was sitting here eating sandwiches," she said. "Next time I saw him, he was dying."