VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Raw with emotions and eager for solutions, community leaders, business owners and others gathered a year ago at the Oceanfront. It was the day after two people died and eight others were wounded in a spate of shootings that created pandemonium in the resort area.
“What happened last night does not define who we are,” community activist Jaketa Thompson, who helped organize the impromptu event, told the crowd. “If we could all come together and start the conversations together as one community we could really make a difference.”
In the year since that chaotic night, some measures have been taken to make the beach safer, including more police surveillance cameras and better lighting at the Oceanfront. But the work to prevent violence from erupting again remains an ongoing challenge for the city.
And Virginia Beach is not alone. Cities across the country are experiencing an uptick in shootings and face the same issue — getting to the root the problem.
Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer will join mayors and police chiefs from across Hampton Roads next Friday to address recent shootings across the region. Dyer also is assembling members of a Virginia Beach youth gun violence task force that will focus on early intervention.
“We’ve been taking this very seriously,” Dyer said. “It’s not a local crisis, it’s a national crisis, but we have to deal with it locally.”
No one expected the first warm spring Friday night last year — March 26 — would spiral out of control.
Atlantic Avenue was packed with people when three unrelated shootings erupted just blocks from each other. About 11:20 p.m., police responded to the first shooting at Atlantic Avenue and 20th Street. Investigators believe a group of people got into an argument that escalated into a gunfight. Eight people were shot.
Soon after, more gunshots rang out a couple blocks away, where DeShayla Harris, 28, an innocent bystander, was shot and killed.
Police Officer Solomon Simmons, responding to the gunfire, shot and killed Donovon Lynch, 25, near 20th Street. Simmons claimed Lynch was brandishing a firearm.
In an interview hours after the shootings, Police Chief Paul Neudigate described it as a “very chaotic night.”
Authorities charged several people in connection to the initial gunfight on Atlantic Avenue, but no one has been charged in Harris’ homicide. A special grand jury deemed that Simmons acted in self-defense when he shot Lynch.
Musician Pharrell Williams, a cousin of Lynch, chastised the city’s handling of Lynch’s death and pulled his wildly popular Something in the Water Festival out of Virginia Beach.
Then, two events that could have a significant impact on policing in Virginia Beach came in November.
The Virginia Beach City Council unanimously approved forming a new board that will have investigative powers while independently reviewing complaints against police officers.
Some community members, particularly minorities, have been asking the city for years to create a board with the power to investigate allegations of police misconduct.
“The idea is to build better relationships and trust between the police department and the community,” the mayor said this week.
And the special grand jury’s report, released that month, put forth several recommendations for the police department.
One was that police body cameras are recording the entire time that officers are on duty.
Shortly after the shooting, the Virginia Beach Police Department had begun using new holsters that would automatically turn on body worn cameras when officers removed their guns. But the department had to halt their use due to a potential defect.
The department now requires officers to activate the record function on their body cameras as soon as they are en route to a call, rather than when they arrive.
Another recommendation in the report was testing officers for alcohol and drugs immediately following a police shooting. There was an allegation that the officer who shot Lynch had been drinking alcohol while on duty, but it was not substantiated, according to the grand jury report.
The department has not yet adopted this recommendation; a police spokesperson said the agency is researching other departments’ practices on the topic.
It’s spring again, and Atlantic Avenue is filling up on warm weekends. Twenty-two new police surveillance cameras keep watch.
New street lights have been added. The city cut down the overgrown foliage around the 19th Street public parking, increasing visibility. Police opened a new substation in the heart of the resort strip. And new gunshot detection technology is being used to identify when and where shots are fired.
But it takes more than police action to make a community feel safe again.
When Thompson, an Oceanfront resident, left the impromptu gathering the day after the shootings last year, she was still reeling.
“I felt a sense of sadness for our community that we were going through that,” she said.
But instead of hiding from the problem, she became even more involved by participating in several new events. Interacting in a positive way improved her outlook.
“It’s seems like the community is really coming together,” Thompson said. “I feel like we’re in a better place.”
Still, more work needs to be done, said Mark Stevens. He owns an Oceanfront business and runs a local outreach organization for homeless youth.
Stevens recently met with several groups concerned about gun violence. They want to start educating young people before it’s too late.
“We’ve got to be able to make them understand that this is not a way to solve our problems,” Stevens said. “I know we have to do a better job.”
-------
