NORTH DAKOTA (KXNET) — What’s going on with people in western North Dakota?

That’s what many residents are wondering these days, given the recent rash of shootings and murders in the region.

There have been quite a few reported in the last six weeks and it does seem unusually high, given North Dakota reported only 17 murders total statewide in 2021, according to North Dakota crime statistics.

Here’s a brief overview of what’s happened recently:

October 4: A Bismarck man was shot and killed in a Bismarck apartment complex parking lot. Bismarck police say they responded to the 200 block of Arbor Avenue on a report of gunshots in the area. When they arrived, officers found a 39-year-old man in a car, dead from an apparent gunshot wound.

September 23: Mandan police officers found an unresponsive man in the area of the trolley bridge in the 1900 block of 3rd Street Southeast. He was identified as Kevin Greybull, 55, and a later autopsy concluded he was killed by multiple stabbing and cutting wounds with a sharp object.

September 23: A 16-year-old from Bismarck was taken into custody for the shooting death of 28-year-old Maurice Thunder Shield, of McLaughlin, SD at the Motel 6 in Bismarck earlier in the day. Witnesses and other evidence led officers and detectives to Warren, MN, where the Marshall County Sherriff’s Department was able to take the juvenile into custody.

September 18: A Watford City gunman shot six times toward a group of people at a party in the parking lot of the Inn at Hunters Run Hotel after he reportedly was ejected from the affair after trying to steal alcohol. One person was hit twice by the gunfire and taken to the hospital in stable condition at the time.

September 14: Two Watford City residents were arrested after a domestic violence incident led to shots fired in the parking lot at the Boulder Ridge Apartment Complex at 909 Park Ave West. Police said a 22-year-old Watford City man walked outside the patio door and fired seven rounds from a handgun into the ground, and then fled the scene on foot. No one was injured in the shooting.

September 2: A 28-year-old Bismarck man shot a gun in the air within city limits at the 100 block of Maryland St. in Bismarck — and then drove over a person’s foot. The man was charged with terrorizing, reckless endangerment, and discharge of a firearm within city limits.

August 23: A mother and son were found dead in Bismarck in what police determined was a murder-suicide conducted by the mother. Officers responded to the 3800 block of Renee Drive in Bismarck in response to numerous requests for welfare checks. When officers entered the residence, the two were both found dead.