News

Jan 21, 2024

Portsmouth police investigate shooting that left one man dead

Next up in 5 Example video title will go here for this video PORTSMOUTH, Va. —

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PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Portsmouth detectives are investigating a shooting that left one man dead early Wednesday morning.

According to police, the man was found dead on the 1000 block of Broad Street around 3:40 a.m. That's just off London Boulevard.

Asked about the growing crime in the city, Mayor Shannon Glover said creating a safer city is a community responsibility.

"Certainly as elected leaders, we are charged with ensuring that we provide our city with the proper management and the resources that we can keep our city safe from a law enforcement and public safety standpoint," Glover said. "But if you see something going on in your community that you think is not appropriate or shouldn't be happening there, it's important that you inform law enforcement and the proper authorities."

Glover said the city is working on new technology to help police in their investigations.

"We have a system whereby you can register your Ring cameras and with your permission, if there's an incident in your community and it shows up on the Ring camera – you can provide that information to the police department so they can take the appropriate action towards solving some of these crimes," Glover said.

Less than 24 hours before this shooting on Broad Street, someone shot two other men in the city.

The first shooting happened at 1:45 p.m. on Radford Street—the second, about a minute later, on Carver Circle.

Police say one man should be okay, the other is badly hurt.

Portsmouth City Council Member De’Andre Barnes said he believes creating more employment opportunities is one way to solve the growing problem.

"We have to understand the origins of crime. When it comes to crime, it's because of poverty. People are in poverty and there's not a lot of opportunity. We need to focus on jobs and opportunities for our citizens," Barnes said. "Anything that we do now, with the lack of land that we have, has to be smart and it has to be strategic and it has to be beneficial to our citizens because poverty is the number one cause of crime."

Barnes said city council needs to do more to invest in opportunities that create jobs.

"You can't arrest your way and you can't prosecute your way out of crime," Barnes said. "It has to come down to the city council level and we have to make a better effort to provide for our citizens so they can stop living this life of crime."

Meanwhile, community activist Freddie Taylor with Stop The Violence 757 said more community engagement is needed to address the root causes of crime.

He said grassroots organizations, city leaders, and police are working but more Portsmouth residents must be involved.

"We’ve been coming to the table. What's the key factor that's missing? The individuals that we are discussing. They’re not present so their voice can be heard… Come to the civic meetings, come to see what's going on in your community," Taylor said. "If we had better communication, better unity, then we could see better results. It's not always about who's leading the charge but are we charging together? What are we unified on?"

Taylor added: "How many more of our young people have to lose their lives? …We have to find that burning need that ‘I don't want my children and my children's children coming up with the same issues that we had to deal with in our lifetime."

The shootings are under investigation.

Anyone who has information that may help detectives can call the Crime Line at 1-888-562-5887 or submit an anonymous tip online at P3Tips.com.