By Jane Prendergast
Enquirer staff writer

Two shooting deaths in Cincinnati neighborhoods early Friday boosted the city's homicide total to 51, a 21 percent increase over this time last year.

The first fatal shots rang out just after 12:30 a.m. on Walter Avenue in Walnut Hills. The first caller to 911 reported hearing about seven shots. Officers responded and found Reginald Acklin, 19, shot in the chest and the stomach. He was taken to University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Witnesses reported seeing the killer running away. He was described as black, in his mid-20s, 5-foot-8 with a medium build, dressed in all black and armed with a large-caliber pistol.

A little less than two hours later, about 2:15 a.m., police responded to Highforest Lane in the Park Valley Apartments, Mount Airy. A caller said a man was lying on the ground. Officers found he'd been shot once.

Paramedics were unable to revive him at the scene. He was later identified as Kenneth Lackey, 26. Police gave no information about a possible suspect.

Last year at this time, Cincinnati detectives had investigated 42 homicides, nine fewer than the amount so far this year.

Councilman David Pepper, chairman of City Council's Law and Public Safety committee, said it's still possible for this year's total not to exceed last year's.

The pace of killings changes, he said, and could slow before the city tops last year's 75 homicides, a 26-year high.

"Whether we're at 70 or 60, we're way too high compared with the numbers for three, four or five years ago,'' he said Friday. "Those are the numbers we should be concerned about.''

In 2002, Cincinnati's homicide total hit 66. In 2001: 63. In 2000: 40.

Police say that nearly all the recent killings are drug-related.

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E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com