July 7, 2008
shooting at the pool
A teenage boy was shot at the Powhatan Hill Community Center just after 4PM today. The unidentified victim is at the VCU medical center, where he is in critical but stable condition. [via]
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How awful. Over the eight years we’ve lived here we’ve tried going to this pool (which is only a few blocks from our house). We don’t go there or to the Powhatan park anymore because of the gang activity, broken glass, and lack of supervision in the area.
Sending our healing vibes to the young man who was shot at the pool.
Having recently located to the Church Hill neighborhood and working in FH Studios I am befuddled at these communities inaction after the endless gunshots all damn weekend long (4th). I guess people are too complacent to call the police when they hear gunfire. And as you can see with this mindless shooting, when gunshots are allowed to proliferate the brazen behavior enters the simplest of disputes. Message here: Citizens of Fulton Hill take a cue from the folks up on 22nd st. in CH and stop gang activity!
Message back to “artist”: You are making a grand assumption with your remark that Fulton community members are too complacent to call the police. I invite you to attend the Greater Fulton Hill Civic Association meetings and the Neighborhood Watch meetings and test your assumption. Your comments imply that Church Hill is as quiet and safe as the West End. Well, not from my experience is it. Fulton, like Church Hill is an on-going work in progress.
I hope you will be a part of the solution in your capacity as visiting artist and call the police when you see or hear questionable behavior. Thanks!
Another shooting today near Fulton pool (RTD 7/8/08)
There is gang activity in this area - you only need read the graffiti at the playground to be sure. I wonder if RPD has this gang in their sites; they need to be taken down like the Church Hill Boyz. It all depends on community involvement. DO NOT hestitate to call the police - your calls are appreciated.
Hey “new artist”,
Before putting your foot in your mouth again, read this post about gunfire and police presence in Fulton:
http://greaterfultonnews.org/2008/06/25/shooting-dealing-and-no-response-from-911/#comment-792
People call the police all the time, but between issues of police man power, time to get to the scene and highly mobile youth who know the neighborhood like the back of their hands, it’s a difficult situation. If you actually want to contribute (instead of scolding and insulting)come to the meetings and do your part. BTW, Church Hill is no gunfree zone, last year a young man was shot in the head on 31st street a block from the elementary school. He died in a pool of blood. My friend and her family moved out of the area to avoid being next on the victim list. I welcome you to Fulton, but get your facts straight before you post.
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I’m sure you have a lovely studio new artist and we’ve had a lovely bungalow here in Fulton Hill for 8 years. We raise two children and have called the police countless times by now. If calling the police were the solution, we’d be crime free my friend. The problem is bigger than that. For every one so-called “thug” there are a hundred hard working, loving, civic minded residents in Fulton Hill.
I’m not sure going to civic association meetings is the solution either, but it couldn’t hurt, especially if you want to learn something about the community you’re working in new artist.
Update: Suspect arrested in Richmond pool shooting
By NBC12 News
A man wanted in a shooting near a local Richmond pool was taken into custody overnight.
Karriem Brown, 19, was wanted for malicious wounding.
A 17-year-old was injured in a shooting on Monday at the Powhatan Pool in Fulton Hill.
There was another shooting yesterday, although nobody was hurt.
Police are also looking into what roll another teen, Ronshjae McCray played.
No word on if the pool well be open in the day ahead.
I think the ‘unactive community’ comment has been responed to already but I wanted to chime in too. We are a community that cares very much and the Civic Association and Neighborhood Watch Group is in regular contact with the police regarding criminal activities in the area. We had a neighborhood walkthrough in May.
It should be noted we do have a gun problem in Fulton. We all hear the gun shots at night. There needs to be a better way for police to respond to these. I’d like to talk to Lt. Lanio about this at the upcoming meeting on Friday.
When and where is the next meeting? I just purchased a house in the Fulton area a few weeks ago. I heard the gun shots the weekend of the fourth and tried to convince myself that it wasn’t what it truly was. I heard fire works on the forth that sounded similar to what I heard and it sort of put my mind at ease until I read these postings. It took me a while to be convinced to buy my home. It is in a relatively quite pocket of Fulton, but I want to feel safe in my first home. I want my friends and family
to feel safe when they visit. I want my property value to appreciate. I have good neighbors who seem comfortable in the neighborhood. I haven’t completely gotten there yet, but I’m not leaving.
If half of the people who hear the gunshots in CH and FH dialed 911 RPD would have to do something better, no? I wonder how many people reading this heard shots this weekend and did NOTHING?
Down in Hopewell the city installed ShotSpotter. Here is an article about it:
http://www.progress-index.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=19759903&BRD=2271&PAG=461&dept_id=462946&rfi=8
Article quote:
“It helps in areas where gunfire is so frequent people don’t call police anymore…People have become so complacent that they don’t call it in…In the past people were afraid to call.”
Maybe this is part of the solution for our unsafe neighborhoods.
This brings me to the next criticism of my thoughts. Where does anyone glean me implying that Church Hill is as safe as the West End? I said, ” I am befuddled at these communities inaction after the endless gunshots all damn weekend long (4th).” Must be too busy being insulted by the judgment of an outsider to realize that communities means both CH and FH. When I said that FH could learn a lesson from the folks on 22nd St. in CH, anyone well read in the events of their city would realize that I was alluding to the recent bust of the Church Hill Boys gang where 20 guns were seized. This results from very brave and praiseworthy citizens being proactive in concert with RPD to make a difference.
Read this article and learn that yes, you can call the police and make a difference:
http://chpn.net/news/2008/06/24/rpd-takes-down-church-hill-boyz/
Article quote: “The citizens really got the ball rolling early in this investigation. They gave us names, times, and locations,” said Special Investigations Division Lt. Hamlet Hood. “The community let us know they didn’t want to live in this type of environment anymore.”
Hey Roy,
Just wait until New Year’s eve, sounds like Baghdad- and it has for decades. That equals community inaction.
Welcome to the neighborhood, Roy! I’ve lived in Fulton Hill for over 2 years now and have been very happy with no problems! Previously, I had lived in the fan for about 5 years - in that time I was robbed 4 times at different apartments, not too mention waking up in the morning and finding my street parked car had been side-swiped. Crime is everywhere in Richmond, this is nothing new. “New artist”, thanks for being apart of the community and giving some suggestions for the crime problem however there is no need to blame (and criticize) our active community. These problems are everywhere in Richmond. Let’s all work together for safer communities which will make a safer city.
Fulton Resident,
I am very sorry to hear that youth shooting each other in your neighborhood = no problems. How many times has this happened this year? What about the girl who was killed on Admiral Gravely in April? I feel that the INACTIVE community members of FH and CH need a swift kick in the pants, and if anyone gets pissed off in the process- so be it. To those of you who are ACTIVE in community organizations and involved with law enforcement, your efforts are laudable and you have my endless praise- keep up the good fight, yet realize that it is far from over as the consistent violence proves. Enlist your inactive neighbors!
I will comment that people work hard within the FH community, they should be commended. I guess you don’t notice people picking up trash, calling the police, speaking to the youth on the streets. True, there are things that need to change about this neighborhood, but I also know of people who work daily to make those very changes. Let’s not let this incident discourage us.
Upon further consideration, the criticisms of our community’s supposed inaction (in this post) resembles victim blaming to me. We, the Fulton Hill community, were not complicit in these crimes, not partially or entirely. I reject your criticisms for I know my community and it’s capacity to love and heal is great.
These crimes are awful but they are not unique to Fulton Hill. They are a symptoms of a much greater societal ill that only community building, connecting, compassion and ,possibly, radical changes in the perception how to care for a nation of peoples, can change.
-stepping of soap box-
I think the best way to take back the neighborhood is to start with the children. Parents, you need to know where your children are and who they are hanging with. And, this includes young adults over 18 that are still living at home. This whole gangster culture has infected our neighborhood like a deadly disease and it starts much younger than you may realize.
Things we can do:
Know where your children are and try to make sure they are spending the summer months in a safe place. I know this is harder as they grow up, but a child at 15 should not have complete freedom. Remember, you as the parent are in charge and in fact, it is your responsibility to make sure freedom is doled out in managable allotments. This can save your child’s life.
Talk to your children. Ask them if they own a gun or if they hang out with anyone that owns guns. Tell them you do not approve of children with guns. The same goes for drugs and drug dealers. Do you know you children’s friends? If not, get to know them.
Be a good role model. Do not celebrate thug-life. Make sure they know you do not approve of that life-style. Make sure they know it’s NOT all about “the benjamins”.
Pay attention to what they are doing on the internet. Go to their Bebo, MySpace, and Facebook pages. Click all the links and see who they are talking to and what they are talking about. There is glut of gang-related profiles on Bebo for Fulton Hill and Church Hill, take this one for example:
https://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=2639255424
Click all the links; do you see anyone you recognize? Your child, grandchild, niece or nephew? Is so, confront them. Let them know that this activity cannot be tolerated. I bet a lot of these kids would be horrified if grandma saw what was on their Bebo page.
Recognize the signs of gang activity. Know the hand gestures and other symbols. The site above features many shots of children flashing gang signs. Let your kids know that it is unacceptable to take such a photo and post it on the internet.
Most of all, do not live in denial. This culture is all around us and our kids know more about it than many of us want to admit.
I first would like to offer my comfort to the families of the victims and the Fulton community.
As president of the Fulton Hill Civic Association, I would like to encourage everyone to know that our Richmond Police Department (RPD) has been doing an outstanding job along with the citizens of the Fulton community. We the people of Fulton want a safe place to live and we can accomplish this by working together with the RPD. It is important to remember that random acts of crime and violence can appear in any community in Virginia, therefore let us not view our present circumstance through the lens of the history of our community. Fulton has become a great community for my family to reside in the past 11 years.
The presence of gunfire on holidays like the Fourth of July and New Years has been excessive during these times in the many places I have lived in the past 50 years. Yet not all gunfire has resulted in killings and the like. To associate holiday and gunfire with individual shootings I do not believe is accurate. We as a community must address these isolated cases and not associated them with certain holidays.
I encourage everyone to come out to a special meeting July 11, 2008 at the Powhatan Center at 6:00 p.m. We will all be there to share our concerns about the recent events that have taken place as well as our support for each other. I am sure there will be many questions, but I hope there will be more solutions by us stepping up to the plate and getting involved.
Thank you for your support and commitment.
President Fulton Hill Civic Association,
Bobby Vickers
Nothing suprises me about what happens in the Fulton area. Donald Harris left to go get a pack of cigarettes on 12/11/2000 and he was found dead in the back seat of his car in Gillies Creek 20 minutes after he left home. He was not into drugs and he would have given the shirt off of his back to anyone. Instead someone decided to shoot him for no reason. Some heartless coward is walking the street while we had to lay a 33 year old to rest two weeks before Christmas. I hope that the person or persons that murdered him suffer the same, if not worse fate that they brought to him. If anyone knows of these cowards, it would be nice for our family to have some peace knowing that this scum is off of the street and not harming anyone else.