A 15-year-old Menchville High School student was shot to death on September 10 as he waited at a school bus stop in Southeast Newport News, Virginia.
According to police, an alert from ShotSpotter — which traces sound waves to determine where gunshots are coming from — prompted officers to go to the 1200 block of 16th Street, just after 6:15 a.m. Emergency workers found the teen “with at least one gunshot wound.” He was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Another Menchville student told the Daily Press she was among about five or six other students waiting at the stop, at the intersection of 16th Street and Garden Drive, near the Stuart Gardens apartments.
The girl, 15, said it was still mostly dark outside when she “saw this guy walk past me” on 16th Street. He was wearing a gray hoodie and a blue medical-style mask popular during the pandemic. “And I didn’t think anything of it,” she said. “I knew it was kind of like, weird.”
Then, she said, she saw the male walk completely around a small residential building at the corner of 16th and Garden. He then walked into the middle of Garden Drive, she said. That’s where he suddenly pulled out a handgun and began shooting toward the 15-year-old student who had just arrived at the bus stop.
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'I saw him pull the gun out,' she said of the shooter.
She added: “I saw the flash, and I ran.”
Shots continued to ring out as she ran, with at least one bullet striking a car that was parked on 16th Street.
“Thank God my kid didn’t get hit, because he was shooting in her direction,” said the girl’s father, who spoke on condition of anonymity for the family because of the potential for retaliation. The girl said she didn’t know the slain boy well, but she saw him on the bus beginning with the first day of school on August 26.
She said she was having flashbacks to last Thursday, when the teen was with a female friend at the bus stop. “And she was like, ‘Can I get a hug?’ and he was like, ‘No, I don’t want to.’”
“And I don’t know if they seen each other since then,” said the girl, who then broke down in tears at the memory. “It’s sad.”
The school bus arrived 'almost immediately' after the shooting, the girl’s father said.
“It kind of got trapped there with the police coming,” he said. The bus, with about five students on board, remained at the scene for about an hour and a half.
A neighbor who lives on 16th Street, Michael Banks, said he was laying in bed when “all of a sudden I heard gunshots” at 6:18 a.m. “It sounded like a cannon,” he said. “I laid there and I told my wife, ‘Something’s going on across the street.”
When the rescue squad and fire trucks pulled up a few minutes later, Banks said, “They jumped out of the truck, and they were running. So I know that whatever happened, it was serious. They got out of the truck running. Evidently they knew that it was pretty bad.”
“Tragic events like this can be difficult to process,” Menchville High School principal Jason Hollar said in a message to the district on Tuesday. “We recognize that some students and staff will need additional support and encouragement. Members of the school division’s support and response team are available at school today to meet and talk with students and staff.”
Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones released a statement commending the police investigation and quick response.
“Today our community was struck by a senseless tragedy,” the mayor's statement reads. “A young boy’s life has been cut short, and my heart aches for his family and loved ones during this unimaginable time. Words cannot fully convey the grief we feel.”
“My heart is just broken,” said Newport News City Council member John Eley, who represents the South District. “A 15-year-old lost his life. Hasn’t even begun life yet,” he said. Eley said his mother lives two streets from where the shooting occurred, and that she was “shaken up” by what had happened.
“I woke up to nine missed phone calls from my mother,” he said. “When I finally called back, she was hysterical about the situation. … She said, ‘John, I’m not calling as your mother. I’m calling as a citizen of Newport News. What can we do to help combat crime in the community?'”
Police are still investigating.
Eley urged the community to “continue to come together during these times” and if they know anything, to come forward to help the police. “It’s a sad situation, but like I told reporters earlier, our city, our community, our police department and the citizens of Newport News work very closely together, and we will catch who did this crime,” he said. “We have zero tolerance for crime in our city,” Eley added.
Detectives and forensics technicians were at the scene until about 11 a.m. Police have not released information about potential suspects. Anyone with information is encouraged to call 911 or the nonemergency number at 757-247–2500.
—Peter Dujardin, Eliza Noe, Nour Habib and Josh Janney, The Virginian-Pilot (TNS)
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