BUFFALO, N.Y. — A 12-year-old boy was grazed by gunfire when someone fired into a house on Hurlock Avenue in Buffalo, according to police.

The boy is in stable condition at the hospital.

The shots were fired around 3 a.m. Monday by an unknown person, police said.

Especially disturbing: This shooting is the latest over a summer where children seem to, more and more, be wounded by gunfire; direct, physical victims of gun violence in the city of Buffalo.

A 7-year-old girl was shot in the leg Friday night in the Schiller Park neighborhood.

One day earlier, three children between the ages of 5 and 9 were in a truck on Butler Avenue that was fired upon. They were not hit, but their mother, who was driving, was killed.

A 17-month-old boy died along with his grandmother, both among four people shot July 2 in the city's Fruit Belt neighborhood. Two more people were shot at the same address not a month later.

In May, a four-year-old girl was hit in the back of the head on LaSalle Avenue, while with her mother inside a car that took fire.

All told, more than 20 people have been killed in Buffalo since the beginning of June, with a total of 36 homicides in the city so far this year. 

In fact, according to Buffalo Police Data, June and July are among the top six deadliest months in the last decade.

"Even back in the day, we had gangs, but it wasn't like it is now," said Bishop Perry Davis of the Stop the Violence Foundation. "There wasn't as many guns on the streets as there are now."

Even with more officers on the street, he believes there's room for more. 

"We can always use more," he said. "We can always use more that are actually going into the different neighborhoods, riding bikes. Back in the day, walking the beat really helped. We need to really step up our game for protecting our kids."

A spokesperson for the District Attorney's office says they've charged people in nine of the homicides this year. That means 75 percent of the cases remain unsolved.

City leaders and activists alike say the hardest part of these crimes is getting people in the community to come forward and tell police what they know. 

"As a police department, we can do so much," said Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood. "We can be close to solving a case and just a little tip can be close to solving a case." 

Lockwood says he'd been stepping up community policing and initiatives to bridge the gap between police and community. 

"Hopefully out of these initiatives that we're doing here, we can get information that can help solve some of the crimes that are being committed in these neighborhoods," he said. 

However, he declined to comment on the case closure rate for the city's homicides so far this year and did not have a response when asked about the deadly outbreaks of violence in June and July. 

At this time last year, there were 32 homicides recorded in the city of Buffalo, four fewer than this year.