The day after four people were killed and three others injured in two separate shootings, police have released few details about what precipitated the violence.
As the community copes, all eyes are on city leaders “because they are not doing enough,” said Freddie Taylor, president of Stop the Violence 757 — a nonprofit that works to raise awareness about gun violence across Hampton Roads.
Five people were shot — three fatally — Thursday afternoon at an apartment complex off Tidewater Drive. Norfolk police described the incident as a shootout inside a unit at Fenner Gardens Apartments, in the 7400 block of Fenner Street, near where the road dead-ends. On Friday, police said all those involved were “acquainted.”
Jarred T. Davis, 35; Quinton O. Sessoms, 43; and Calvin L. Wood, 44; died in the shooting, and a 40-year-old man and woman were injured, Norfolk police announced Friday.
A separate shooting about two hours earlier in the roadway at Wards Corner claimed the life of 19-year-old Norfolk resident Johnathan D. Clark. A 17-year-old boy also was injured, police said Friday.
According to Taylor, Fenner Street is an area known for drug use and sales and the apartments behind Wards Corner have also had problems with drugs and crime. When violence has struck in those neighborhoods previously, they haven’t received the same focus from the city as when violence erupts downtown, said Taylor. He noted the city’s crackdown on bars and nightclubs, announced at a news conference held by the city manager, interim police chief and sheriff the day after four people were injured in an Aug. 5 shooting outside a downtown nightclub.
City leaders, Taylor said, are only focused on promoting downtown Norfolk as a tourist destination and “blatantly neglecting” poverty-stricken, troubled communities.
“They are only thinking about tourism. The city wants to bring in tourists and cruise ships and turn community facilities into luxury apartments,” Taylor said. “But when are they going to stop these illegal guns and drugs that are flooding our communities?”
But Mayor Kenny Alexander said Friday he was concerned that more incidents of gun violence appear to be happening in neighborhoods that “have not traditionally seen gun violence.” He called the uptick in violent crime “senseless.”
“Families are grieving. Communities are grieving,” Alexander said. “We can’t just accept the loss of life.”
Alexander said the city government is continuing to fill police vacancies while also focusing on long-term violence prevention such as de-concentrating poverty in troubled neighborhoods.
As of Friday evening, police had not offered any possible motive or publicly identified any suspects in either homicide case.
The fatal shootings rocked Norfolk residents, who stood outside for hours as police processed the scenes Thursday.
A crowd of roughly 15 people gathered in a grocery store parking bordering the police tape at Wards Corner. They listened to a police scanner on a woman’s phone, trying to piece together what happened.
“A shooting in broad daylight,” one bystander said shaking her head.
As the crowd was listening to the scanner, “five shot at Fenner” came through the speaker. Audible shock rippled through the crowd.
A group of people sat outside an apartment Friday afternoon on Fenner Street, with three star-shaped balloons tied to the banister and three prayer candles lit nearby. One man sat on the ground drinking from a beer bottle. He told a reporter canvassing the area to “be careful.”
“Family members were literally assassinated in their home yesterday,” Taylor said. “That trauma is going to plague that community.”
Staff writers Jane Harper and Daniel Berti contributed to this report.
Caitlyn Burchett, 727-267-6059, caitlyn.burchett@virginiamedia.com
