Four adults and an infant were shot Tuesday night — a horror that compelled the police chief to once again plead with Norfolk residents to do whatever it takes to stop shootings from becoming a part of their everyday lives.
The shooting happened around 10:15 p.m. in the 800 block of E. Princess Anne Road. The 1-month-old was hurt the worst, suffering life-threatening injuries and taken to the Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, Police Chief Larry Boone said in a recorded YouTube video that the Norfolk Police Department posted Wednesday evening on Twitter. All four adults went to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, but are expected to be OK.
On Wednesday, the infant was still in critical condition, but stable, Boone said.
It was unusual for the chief to speak out about a specific shooting — something the department usually announces in a tweet or a brief news release on the city’s website. But the age of the youngest victim seems to prompted him to take to the air.
“We have a human being that has barely been on this earth for 30 days and they are already a statistic of gun violence. What a horrible first impression of what life can be like in this world,” he said.
Then the chief gave a light scolding to those who have become “desensitized to this type of shooting.” He talked about how thousands of protesters across the country demanded police reform in the three months since George Floyd was killed when a white Minneapolis police officer jammed his knee into the back of Floyd’s neck for about eight minutes as Floyd was handcuffed and pinned to the ground.
But, the chief asked, where are the protesters who want to fight against gun violence in their own city? In their own neighborhood?
“I await the outcry,” Boone said.
There’s a difference between what protesters say is police brutality and incidents like Tuesday night’s shooting. Protesters are often demanding that city leaders, police chiefs, and elected officials reform how officers police their cities and towns, as well as how those officers and police departments are held accountable. The criminal justice system already exists to hold accountable criminals who shoot and otherwise illegally attack others.
While unusual, it’s not unheard of for Boone to try to rouse the public into caring about gun violence, a pet project he’s taken on in his nearly four years as chief. Much like Wednesday, Boone has issued statements and rallied people to community events, often after children are shot.
In May 2019, a 13-year-old boy, Jay-Don Davis, was shot dead in Young Terrace near a convenience and cell phone store. A block and a half away and a few weeks later, 15-year-old David Godfrey was shot and killed.
In the days after those shootings, Boone called on everyone to stop the “unmitigated killing” of kids.
In his YouTube address Wednesday, Boone seemed to hearken back to those homicides. “We’re here again. When the crying ceases, the tears dry, neighborhood memorials with candles and balloons are deflated, so goes that same energy to affect this crisis in our own back yard.”
The child hurt in Tuesday night’s shooting was a 1-month-old girl, according to a woman on Facebook who identified herself as the child’s mother. Late Wednesday afternoon, she wrote a post asking everyone to pray for her infant daughter. She did not respond to messages from The Virginian-Pilot sent through Facebook.
Police did not respond to questions from The Pilot, including about whether detectives have made any arrests or know what led to the shooting.
Exactly a month before the shooting, the woman wrote a Facebook post announcing that her newborn daughter “IS HERE !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Welcome to this crazy world BABY GIRL.”
About 15 minutes before the shooting, the woman posted a picture of her infant daughter, who was wearing a pink bow, with the word “Love” superimposed just above her head. In the post, the woman says, “Happy 1 month to my beautiful baby girl…mommy love you sweetie pie.”
Jonathan Edwards, 757-739-7180, jonathan.edwards@pilotonline.com
