NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — One man is dead and another is in the hospital with life-threatening injuries after a shooting Thursday morning at 74th Street and Roanoke Avenue in Newport News, police said.
A juvenile is also being treated for "injuries that are potentially life threatening," Newport News Police said in a release.
Newport News police have since identified the man who died as 18-year-old Rey’ll Parks of Hampton.
Neighbors said a barrage of gunshots rang out in the area just before 11 a.m. on Thursday.
"It's scary because you don't know what to think. But it's also sad because it's Christmas time and people just died for probably hardly any reason at all," said one neighbor who didn't want to be identified.
Other neighbors told News 3 the area had been feeling "less safe" in recent months as there was another shooting several houses away.
Newport News police noted, however, that shootings are down in the city from 97 last year to 74 this year.
That's still far too many incidents of violence, according to shooting survivor and activist Cameron Bertrand.
"We cannot wait for gun violence to impact somebody we know and love to start caring. That's been the problem," said Cameron Bertrand who runs Gun Violence Intervention & Prevention Outreach & Research Center/Violence Intervention & Prevention VIP LLC.
He said major factors are trauma and hardship.
"Nobody in our communities is born violent. It's a learned behavior and most of it is a protection for survival," said Bertrand.
But, he added, his organizations and others in Hampton Roads are working to address the problem with survival, mental health, peer support and trauma recovery resources.
"People often look at victims, but there are survivors too. And you don't have to be shot to be a survivor," said Bertrand.
He added that the solution can be found with access to adequate, efficient and sustainable resources and community action.
"If you're not speaking up against the hate that's going in our communities, you're just as much as part of the problem. We have to remember that we need people to look past what it is the pain that we have experienced and remember that healing is the key and we can actually be the solutions that we need to see," said Bertrand. "Ending gun violence... it ends with us. We have to be the last generation to experience violence at this level. The way that we do that is we speak every name that's been lost, that we uplift every program and resource that's benefited us, and to make sure we provide that sense of community, responsibility, and a village to make sure nobody falls through the gaps."
Anyone with information about the incident on 74th St. and Roanoke Ave. is encourage to call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP or submit an anonymous tip at P3Tips.com.
Stay with News 3 for updates.
