Many Halifax residents are wondering how to stop the violence after three separate shooting incidents in the city in three days.

"It's getting bad, it's getting bad," says resident Brad Lynch. "I'm an able-bodied guy, 40 years old and I don't feel safe walking the street by myself."

Lynch lives in the neighbourhood where a double-shooting led to the murder of 36-year-old Corey Duane Lucas of Halifax. Police say the Friday night shooting on Clifton Street was drug-related and not random.

"I think it's horrific regardless," says resident Ryley Beggs. "I don't know what to do about it though."

Some of Halifax's mayoral candidates have some ideas on how to solve the problem.

"We have to look at it short-term and we have to look at it long-term," says mayoral candidate Mike Savage. "To look at one without the other wouldn't make any sense. People are concerned, they need to feel safe. We also need to take a long-term view, provide opportunities, provide mental health services, provide education."

Mayoral candidate Tom Martin was a police officer for 30 years. He says the city of Halifax has to change its approach to violent crime.

"My personal opinion is that we're reaching epidemic proportions," says Martin.

Martin says his background in law enforcement is a large part of why he wants to be mayor.

"It has to be more than just the police reacting to this," says Martin. "There has to be a proactive approach as well. I think we definitely have to get communities involved. It's a social problem."

In addition to a Saturday night shooting on Creighton Street which left a 19-year-old Halifax man injured, a second man was injured in a brazen daytime shooting on Quinpool Road on Thursday afternoon.

"I have to say, I understand why some people don't feel safe," says Deputy Chief Bill Moore of the Halifax Regional Police.

Moore agrees the city needs a long-term plan to battle crime.

"Unfortunately, there's not a cookbook for us to kind of deal with this. So what we're doing is we're reviewing everything we're doing. We're targeting those that we know either have a propensity or intelligent relation to violence," says Moore.

No charges have been laid in the shootings, but police say they are making progress in the investigations.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell