CHESTER, Va. (WTVR) - Shadows of blue police lights swept in the Broadwater Townhomes community on Thanksgiving night.
Many families had just finished a holiday meal when some heard the sound of rapid gunfire.
"I thought at first it was just fireworks that I heard, and then about 10 minutes later, I came to the kitchen and saw the ambulances," neighbor Chloe Pickett said.
It was the lights and sirens of Chesterfield Police responding to an active scene, later learned to be a triple shooting.
"It's rare you pull up on a scene and hear gunshots and people screaming for help," Capt. Kevin Smith of the Chesterfield Police Department said.
In the daylight hours Friday, police spent the better part of the day getting a better look at the evidence. They labeled the many bullet holes scattered across the front of door of the crime scene.
Police believe a domestic dispute happened outside. A female and her 11-year-old and 16-year-old sons ran inside the home.
Police believe the suspect, 35-year-old Michael Derrick Williams, then shoots his way inside and continues firing before trying to flee out of the back of the residence where police were waiting.
"They had roped it off to where people couldn't drive over here and they had their flash lights on looking for someone or something," Pickett said.
Forensics teams combed the area again Friday, collecting and documenting all they could from the crime scene. Police are still unsure of the exact nature of what prompted the holiday violence.
Neighbors say with the so many children in the community at such close range, the incident was reckless and unfortunate.
"Most people out here have kids and I hate that their thanksgiving was effected by that," Pickett saod.
Last year, in this same community, a stray bullet from a nearby gunfight struck and killed 13-year-old Devin Hawkins.
The two teenage boys injured in this case are still in critical condition. Their mother, the female victim, is in stable condition.
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