VIRGINIA BEACH
A trio of homicides in the past week has made December one of the deadliest months in Virginia Beach in recent history.
Since Dec. 23 , three double shootings have left three people dead and as many injured. The incidents were unrelated and occurred in different parts of the city. In two of the cases, disagreements resulted in gunfire. The third was unprovoked, police said.
The spate of killings is unusual for a city that usually averages one or two homicides a month. There have been four so far in December, more than any month in the past two years.
“Four in a month is unusual and three in one week is highly unusual,” said Officer Adam Bernstein, a police spokesman. “There’s no rhyme or reason to any of them, really.”
Last week’s fatalities bring the total number of homicides so far this year to 18, one more than in 2008. Two of last year’s 17 cases were ruled justifiable, Bernstein said. Police have made arrests in all but one of this year’s cases.
Early on Dec. 23, Lucious Williams III, 22, and a friend returned home from a club and were standing outside when a dispute broke out, police said. Shots were fired, killing Williams and injuring his friend. The shooting occurred on Harrier Street in the Northridge neighborhood.
Police later arrested Steven Walton, 24, of Norfolk in the shooting.
Just after midnight Saturday in Ocean Lakes, a neighbor knocked on Keith Scott Chapin’s door and asked for a beer, said Chapin’s live-in girlfriend, Susie Carter. He obliged, but declined the neighbor’s request to come inside, she said.
That’s when Carter, who was upstairs at the time, heard gunfire. Chapin, 35, the lead vocalist in a local heavy-metal band, was shot and died at the scene, police said. A second person, his brother, was seriously wounded.
After a standoff that lasted more than two hours, police arrested one of Chapin’s neighbors, Aaron Louis Patterson, 45.
Later that night, an argument led to gunshots at Trailer City on Virginia Beach Boulevard, killing Florentino Martinez-Melendez, 40, and seriously injuring another, police said.
Seven blocks away, police pulled over and arrested Jorge Alberto Fuertes Loredo and Isidro Loredo Amaya, both 31. In all three cases, the suspects have been charged with murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, police said. Walton and Patterson also face malicious wounding charges.
Despite the recent violence, Virginia Beach is still one of the safest cities of its size, Bernstein said. There were 2.5 violent crimes per 1,000 residents last year, beating the national average of 21 per 1,000 residents, he said.
The number of homicides has been cut nearly in half since 1994, when there were 33.
Kathy Adams, (757) 222-5155, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com
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"thug"="black"?????????
EbonyWisdom(I wish I know what that means): I am overwhelmed by how little informed some people on this forum are. If you check the meaning of "THUG", you will realize that it has nothing to do with race or gender and nobody else on this forum equates the word with ‘black’. Everyone of ‘black’ race is offended by this!!!!. The depth of your imagination is shameful.
solution for criminals
Unfortunately, outlawing guns is not the answer, the people who have guns legally are not the ones going around commiting crimes. It is those that obtain them illegally that are causing the problem. We need harsher terms for those who use a gun to commit any type of crime. Instead of putting them in prison at the tax payers expense, send them to war zones in other countries and let them fight the enemy. Send them to third world countires and let them stay there a few years and work to help build poverty stricken areas. Let them really pay for their actions in a way that will cost them and will make them appreciate what they have here.
I swear, we should just take
I swear, we should just take certain areas of Hampton Roads and just launch them into space. Some people are just animals.
Lemmings
I knew it would not take long for one of the anti light rail lemmings to say a negative comment about the light rail even though the topic has nothing to do with it. It never fails you people are just so negative. This story is about three recent murders in Va Beach. The city is still relatively safe, i mean you can be murdered anywhere since firearms are easily accessible, and do you not think that the so called Norfolk thugs do not know how to ride a bus to Va Beach or their own vehicle? Or maybe that there are actually these thugs in Va Beach to? OHHHHH How original. Jump off your pedistal and enter the real world.
VB versus Ptown
Ok the idea that this article shows that VB is as bad as Portsmouth is flawed. I cant find statistics for 2009 but according to this link: http://hamptonroads.com/2009/09/database-crime-united-states-2008
in 2008 Portsmouth had 15 murders and VB had 14. It seems like the crime rate is very close but if you consider that VB has a population of 433,746 and Ptown has a population of only 100,577, than the crime rate is way different. If my math skills serve me right, VB has one murder per every 30,981 people where as Portsmouth has one murder per 6,705 people. So I would say Portsmouth has a much bigger problem than VB.
ban guns!
If we passed a law to outlaw guns then we would all be safer and gun violence would disappear. We should also remove the 2nd amendment from the Constitution. I don't think our founding fathers could have forseen what our country has become. It's not like we're living on the frontier anymore. Nobody really needs a gun.
Just Kidding! LOL, wouldn't it be wierd if I was like that?
People Kill, not guns
Outlawing guns would not stop killing. These morons who have to carry guns and act like they are hot sh?t are the ones who kill. If they didn't have a gun, they would find another way. Killing someone over an argument is childish. Most of the people who have to carry a weapon do it because they have the mentally of a baby. Actually, babies have a better mentally than that.
thug
thug
/θʌg/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [thuhg] Show IPA ,
Use thug in a Sentence
See web results for thug
See images of thug
–noun
1. a cruel or vicious ruffian, robber, or murderer.
2. (sometimes initial capital letter) one of a former group of professional robbers and murderers in India who strangled their victims.
Origin:
1800–10; < Hindi thag lit., rogue, cheat
LOL at "code word," I must have been out the day they passed out code books.
Wow
I can't believe people are really concerned with murder and mayhem.... we have bars and restaurants still trying to allow smoking, and real criminals building specially vented rooms to allow this evil to continue. I sure will feel safer when the police are going into these restaurants every day with their little air sniffers and the burglars, murders and rapists are left alone in peace.
I bet
some Virginia Beach bloggers are hot today!!! Yesterday there is an article about the violence levels in your schools (which some of you erroneously tried to blame on the "ghetto childern" when a lot of the schools were apparently in suburban areas) and today you read this.
Let the "We are not as bad as Portsmouth/Norfolk", "Virginia Beach is turning into a ghetto", "I want my mommy" arguments begin!
single issue for you
Ebony, I get the feeling you lurk here searching for things that can be tied to your #1 issue: Race.
You are actively fishing for race arguments. Seriously, get over it. You'll live longer.
What amuses me the most
is how when crime is discussed in the Tidewater area bloggers here love to focus on Portsmouth and Norfolk "thugs" (code words for black males) and act like crime does not exist in Virginia Beach.
Why is this article even needed Virginia Pilot? Where are the articles about how crime is rises in Suffolk? You are just feeding the flames.I bet you would not have reported this story at the height of tourist season! Yet you and the local news channels would have been all over Norfolk and Portsmouth becuase of class issues.
Bottom line, the Hampton Roads area is still very safe compared to other cities. We will always have jobs here and a good strong middle class because the military is here. If they ever left (and they wont because of the open ports) we would die like Detriot did when the auto industry went overseas.
P.S. I am a proud Portsmouth resident who lives in a wonderful neighborhood and I love my surroundings. This "high crime" you guys cry about (mainly because you are white males probably afriad of black men) I do not see and I go back and forth from downtown to Churchland everyday.
your assumption
You ASSUME white men, and probalby women are afraid of black men AKA thugs.
Ready to give a thumbs up!
EbonyWisdom, I was ready to give you a thumbs up. I am a life-long P-Town resident, and will be buried in Olive Branch Cemetery so I can stay in the town I love forever. However, when I got to your statement, "This 'high crime' you guys cry about (mainly because you are white males probably afriad of black men)", that changed everything. Why did you end such an excellent letter with such a racist statement?
yep, crime (shootings) happens everywhere
Yes, shooting and killing happens everywhere. It's a sad fact! Maybe if there was a stiffer sentence, and more gun contol laws there would be less shooting and killing. Just a thought!
gun control laws
Currently there are over 20,000 gun control laws on the books nationally. How many more do you think we need to pass before the criminals will finally start obeying them? Answer: none! Criminals won't/don't follow the law. WAKE UP!!
Insanity is...
Washington D.C. did exactly what you suggest, Gertz, thirty years ago, and banned all handguns. It immediately became the murder capital of America. Every once in a while, it trades that distinction with other cities that disarm law-abiding citizens.
Good idea
We need more gun laws to deter criminals from carrying guns. Like they're going to obey those nebulous new laws you put your faith in.
Crime is Crime
Stop blaming it on the neighboring cities every place has crime it doesnt matter if it portsmouth or norfolk or va beach or chesapeake stop point the finger and look in the backyard pay attention to the things your kids say and do! there friends the places they hang!..but va beach iss actually one of the safest places in hampton roads so why say those things..it hasa very low crime rate but its not the garden of eden either every place has it problem
Wait until Light Rail brings inner city thugs to the Oceanfront
This isn't nothing. Just wait until light rail brings all these inner city thugs to the Oceanfront. Sorry to hear about the folks killed and injured, that is sad.