RICHMOND, Va. — Police are investigating after a man was shot and killed Friday afternoon in Gilpin Court.
The shooting happened at an apartment in the 1100 block of Saint Paul Street. The man who died had recently moved to the area from another state, according to Crime Insider sources.
Ryan Wilkerson, who heard the gunshot around 2:30 p.m., expressed frustration with the ongoing violence in the community.
"Most definitely, everybody's tired of seeing this because I remember the days it wasn't this. You could actually go somewhere, have fun, stand out on the block and wouldn't have to worry about nobody shooting," Wilkerson said.
Wilkerson pointed to systemic issues affecting the neighborhood that he believes contribute to the violence.
"It's like a black hole. All projects are like a black hole, when there's nothing to do, there's no resources, there's no jobs. The community center has been over there 10 years. Half of these kids don't even know what the inside of that thing looks like," Wilkerson said.
Wilkerson speaks from personal experience about the consequences of gun violence. In the late 1990s, he was sentenced under Project Exile, a program that sent gun offenders to serve time in federal prisons far from their homes.
"I got caught with a gun. They gave me an automatic five years on top of everything. I went to prison when I was 18, came out the day I turned 28," Wilkerson said.
He served most of his sentence in Cumberland, Maryland, and believes the distance from his family forced him to develop discipline.
"It did me some good because it let me know that because I got burned when I touched that stove and it let me know that they weren't playing," Wilkerson said. "When I came out, it was on my mind, like, I'm never gonna put myself in that situation again. I'm never gonna be in a situation where I can't be told where I can eat, sleep, shower, away from my kids."
Police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to come forward to assist with their investigation.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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