Richmond officials on Monday announced an 11 p.m. curfew for juveniles effective Friday following a recent spike in gun violence.
Eight people have been killed in the city since March 31, Police Chief Rick Edwards said, and four of those victims have been juveniles.
“It’s been a terrible two weeks in our city,” Edwards said. “Kids have seen their parents killed. Parents have seen their kids killed.”
Additionally, the police department will launch Operation Safe Summer — an initiative that sees Virginia State Police intervention in neighborhoods deemed at-risk.
Police have identified 21 gun-violence hotspots — each is roughly one-to-three blocks wide and collectively account for the bulk of gun-related homicides. They are predominantly located in the North Side, South Side and East End.
In an effort to reduce the number of gun-related injuries, a special task force within the department will team up with roughly a dozen Virginia State Police officers to increase their presence, Edwards said. This includes increasing police patrols at several city schools during pick-up and drop-off times.
The department first launched Operation Safe Summer last year, and police said it saw success in reducing the number of gun-related injuries and violent crimes. Police had intended to relaunch the program in June, but they are launching the initiative early because of the recent spate of shooting deaths.
8 killings in 2 weeks
In the most recent shooting, a 16-year-old was killed in the East End on Sunday afternoon. Police said officers responded to the 1400 block of Jennie Scher Road at around 3:18 p.m. for reports of a shooting. At the scene, officers found two adults and two juveniles on the ground outside a residence.
The seven other fatal shootings in Richmond since March 31 include:
was killed and an adult was injured in a shooting in Gilpin Court.
In addition to the four juveniles killed and one injured in Richmond, a minor was shot and killed in Hanover County at a house party on April 6 and a 16-year-old boy was killed in a shooting on Broadwater Way in Chesterfield County on Thursday.
‘Not our job to parent your kids’
The curfew and operation were announced Monday during a City Hall news conference, which included Mayor Levar Stoney, Superintendent Jason Kamras and members of the Richmond City Council and School Board.
In his address, Stoney said the city holds a strict approach on youth gun violence, citing that those, regardless of age, who choose to commit a gun-related homicide will be held accountable to the full extent of the law.
Additionally, Stoney urged parents to check in with their children, have them follow the curfew and keep them out of trouble to ensure their safety.
“We do our best to fill in the gaps for the least — the lost. But we can’t fill in every single gap,” Stoney said. “There’s no dollar that can fill every single gap. There’s no employee on the city payroll that can fill every single gap. That’s why we are here, collectively, pleading.
“It’s not our job to parent your kids.”
Many victims are RPS students
While there is a curfew in place, Edwards said the department is relying on parents to enforce the curfew as it is not the intention of the department to be “scooping up kids and bringing them home” unless it is absolutely necessary.
Since 2019, Kamras said, 169 Richmond youths have been shot, the majority of whom were Richmond Public Schools students. Kamras said these tragedies have a lasting impact on the school system.
In the past three weeks, Chimborazo Elementary School, Martin Luther King Middle School, Armstrong High School, Bellevue Elementary School, Richmond Alternative School and Thomas Jefferson High School have been directly impacted by gun violence, Kamras said.
“The friends and family members of those who die show up to school the next day, and it’s our teachers and our counselors and our psychologists and our food nutrition folks and our bus drivers and our custodians who stand in the gap and do what we ask of them, which is to teach and to lead and to serve with love,” Kamras said.
Edwards said the recent shootings are not gang-related. The majority, he said, are the result of simple arguments that escalated into gun violence.
With the curfew in place and the early implementation of Operation Safe Summer, city officials are hopeful that gun-related injuries will decline across the city. In the meantime, Edwards and Stoney urged folks to properly lock up their firearms and to keep them out of children’s hands.
“We don’t make guns in Richmond. There are probably no gun shops in the city either, but some way, somehow, they happen to be concentrated in the city,” Stoney said. “If you do own a weapon and you do own it legally, safely store your weapon. Is that too much to ask?”
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney listens during a news conference on Monday as Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras outlines the impacts of gun violence on the school system and student body.
On Monday, Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards announces the department will relaunch Operation Safe Summer, a partnership with Virginia State Police, to address youth gun violence. Police had intended to do that in June, but they will relaunch the initiative early because of the recent spate of shooting deaths.