RICHMOND, Va. -- 23 shootings and 10 homicides have taken place over the course of 17 days in the City of Richmond, according to Police Chief Gerald M. Smith.
On Monday, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney met with the police chief met to go over policing strategies and discussed increasing police presence in the housing projects where many of the shootings have taken place.
"When are we, as a city and a community, going to say enough is enough? What will it take?
— Richmond Police (@RichmondPolice) September 1, 2020
Anytime you have five people gunned down, one of them dies and very few people give us anything to work with. What can we do differently?
The Police Dept. cannot fight this fight alone."
Last week, 5 people were shot and one was killed in a mass shooting in Richmond's Whitcomb Court housing project.
On August 21, a teenager was shot and killed in Gilpin Court.
Additionally, one man was shot and received "serious injuries" following a shooting in downtown Richmond on Friday evening.
On August 28, a spate of shootings in Richmond over the course of 24 hoursleft four people wounded, including a 17-year-old boy.
And on August 31, Richmond Police identified the man killed in a shooting on Midlothian Turnpike on the morning of Thursday, August 27.
Both Stoney and Smith say they are hoping to break the "vicious cycle."
"When we get there, the deed is done. We are there to solve the crime and try to help pick up the pieces.
— Richmond Police (@RichmondPolice) September 1, 2020
There’s still a pandemic going on. People are stressed. Tensions can boil over. But taking another person’s life is not the answer.”
"The question I have is the question on the minds of those who live here and throughout this city: how many more?” Stoney asked.
