PORTSMOUTH, Va. - Detectives with the Portsmouth Police Department's Major Crimes Unit are looking for two persons of interest in connection with a shooting that left one teen dead and another seriously injured Saturday evening.
On Saturday around 6:24 p.m., dispatchers got a call about a gunshot wound incident near the 200 block of Elm Avenue.
Officers found two juveniles with life-threatening gunshot wounds; they were taken to local hospitals for treatment.
Early Sunday morning, detectives said one of the victims, identified as 14-year-old Jada McNiell of Chesapeake, died from their injuries.
Authorities say the second victim, a 15-year-old, is still in critical condition.
Detectives released surveillance photos of two people who are considered persons of interest in connection with this incident.
Residents in the neighborhood say they are heart broken and want answers.
"This is hitting close to home and quite frankly these are children. This is my daughter’s elementary school. She’s now going into high school. She’s the same age as these young kids and quite frankly, it’s very disturbing," Tony Goodwin, a Park View resident, said.
Goodwin has lived in Park View since 2008. He says this is the second shooting within the past month.
"As a parent, I cannot imagine what the parents and grandparents and family members from these two from yesterday are going through," Goodwin said.
Martha Moss has lived in the neighborhood for more than forty years. She says she first noticed something wasn’t right when she got home and saw several police cars.
"I got home around 8 o clock and all the commotion was going on. My neighbor was calling me because they know I’m here by myself. I said well honey I’m just getting home and I don’t know what’s going on," Moss said.
She says lately, she’s seen an increase in police patrolling the neighborhood.
"It use to be a quiet neighborhood when I first moved out here," she stated
But Moss says the neighborhood is not so quiet anymore.
"I just stay in the house and look out the window," Moss says.
One resident who didn’t want to be on camera says the shooting may have a lot to do with no recreational centers in the area.
"I think that Portsmouth needs to do something more for the kids. They want the kids to put the guns down but once the kids put the guns down, what do they have to be kids. They took all the basketball hoops down, no recreation center," the resident stated.
If you have information about this homicide, you are asked to call the Portsmouth Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit at (757) 393-8536 or to submit an anonymous tip through the Portsmouth Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP (1-888-562-5887). Tips may also be submitted anonymously via the Crime Line’s P3Tips app or at their website.
