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Vigils honor two 17-year-olds killed in separate Norfolk shootings

Posted at 10:17 PM, Apr 27, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-27 22:52:50-04

NORFOLK, Va. - A chorus of voices, balloons, and loved ones gathered.

It's the 18th birthday part Deshawn Spencer never got to celebrate, but Thursday night Spencer's family celebrated it anyway.

"What better way to say we love you than to honor him tonight?" said Spencer's grandmother, Janice McKee.

Spencer was shot outside his Wilson Road home Monday night just three days before his birthday. He didn't survive.

"They called him turtle so everybody knew turtle. I've gotten calls from the schools, Parks and Rec. Everybody knew him. He was kind of quiet, but yet you knew his presence when he showed up," said McKee.

Across town was a similar scene Thursday.

Another vigil for Kaison Mitchell, who was shot Wednesday night at Olney and Whitaker Roads and later died. Like Spencer, he was just 17.

"It`s scary he was just walking outside. That`s very scary," said Pastor Anjenette Hodges, who lives nearby. "I go to Disciple of Prayer Ministry. A lot of the kids were friends with him so I came out here tonight to support him."

Surrounded by candlelight, Hodges, along with Mitchell's aunt and mother, asked for the violence to stop. It's something two groups of people, honoring two different lives, could come together on.

"We need to understand as adults...what did we do and how did we fail our children? Because we`ve failed them for real," said McKee.

Norfolk police told News 3 they haven't made arrests in either incident.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.