Amidst holiday celebrations, a string of shootings hit the Charlottesville area in December.
On December 18 at around 2:20am, the Charlottesville Police Department responded to a shots fired call on the 100 block of 14th Street NW. Officers found a male who had been shot, who was taken to the hospital. Two days later, the CPD arrested Anthony Marcus Paige of Charlottesville and Miriah Shavone Smith of Staunton in connection with the shooting. Both Paige, 28, and Smith, 30, were charged with felony malicious wounding, among other crimes.
On December 19 at around 5:45pm, CPD officers responded to a shooting call on the 2300 block of North Berkshire Road, and discovered a woman who had been shot (she was transported to the hospital). Police have not provided additional information regarding the incident.
On December 22 at around 9:32pm, the Albemarle County Police Department and county Fire Rescue responded to a report of an unconscious person in a vehicle in the 5200 block of Stony Point Road. First responders determined that the person had been shot multiple times, and was deceased. The department later identified the victim as 37-year-old Sabrina Elizabeth Jenkins of Orange, who was a mother of four boys, reports The Daily Progress. Two days later, police arrested 31-year-old Dominic Gaskins of Orange, and charged him with second-degree murder. A GoFundMe fundraiser has been started to cover Jenkins’ funeral expenses.
These shootings come after a spike in gun violence in the city and county this past fall, including seven homicides.
On September 17, Charlottesville police responded to a call on Third Street NE and discovered a man who had been shot. He was later identified as 29-year-old Daquain Anderson, and was taken to the hospital, where he died of his injuries. No one has been arrested for his murder.
According to the ACPD, a person was shot in the Rio Hill Apartments parking lot on September 24, and later died of their injuries at the hospital. Police said the shooting appeared to be domestic related, but have yet to announce an arrest.
On October 23, the CPD responded to a shots fired report on the Downtown Mall and found a man and two women who had been shot, following a fight between two men at Lucky Blue’s. The injured man, later identified as Devonn J. Wilson, died at the hospital. The two women, who were bystanders, sustained non-life threatening injuries. On October 28, authorities arrested Marcel Darell Washington of Charlotte, North Carolina, in connection with the shooting, and charged him with second-degree murder.
On October 25, Albemarle police arrested Shawna Marie Natalie Murphy, 38, in connection with the homicide of her boyfriend, Matthew Sean Farrell, 53, at his home on the 2100 block of Stony Point Road, and charged her with second-degree murder. And on November 14, authorities arrested Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., who is accused of killing Devin Chandler, 20, Lavel Davis Jr., 20, and D’Sean Perry, 22, and injuring Michael Hollins, 19, and Marlee Morgan, 19, at the University of Virginia on November 13. Jones, 23, was charged with three felony counts of second-degree murder, among other crimes.
Since September, shootings have also left more than a dozen people injured in Charlottesville and Albemarle. The CPD has pointed to the department’s short staffing as a cause of the increase in gun violence, while the ACPD has blamed gang activity.