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Shots heard ’round the city

Less than 24 hours before Albemarle police shot and killed Billy Sites on February 28 near the Red Roof Inn, Michael Kochis, Charlottesville’s new police chief, held a community forum at Old Trinity Church in response to recent area homicides. Five days later, Justice Kilel was shopping at Sunshine Supermarket on Cherry Avenue when two individuals walked in and assaulted him. 

Two people fired shots, and first responders pronounced Kilel, 20, dead at the scene. Police charged a 17-year-old unnamed juvenile, who had been taken to the hospital for a gunshot wound, with second-degree murder and 19-year-old Nasier McGhee with malicious wounding in connection with the Gordonsville man’s death. Investigators believe the homicide was “part of an ongoing dispute between the suspects and victim,” according to the Charlottesville Police Department.

Kilel’s slaying marks the fifth gun-related homicide in Charlottesville this year—three more than last year at this time. Between January 28 and February 27, the CPD received an average of one shots fired call per day—“sometimes we find something, sometimes we don’t,” said Kochis. The calls are “typically teenagers” involved in “neighborhood beefs” and “simple conflicts,” who are using guns “coming from all over the place,” whether they are stolen from cars and left unlocked in peoples’ homes. 

The majority of the recent homicides “involved people who knew each other or were acquainted in some way with each other,” explained the chief. On January 8, Osvaldo Lopez-Hernandez of Texas was shot and killed in the Fitzgerald’s Tire Co. parking lot. A second unnamed victim, an associate of Lopez-Hernandez, was injured in the shooting. Police charged Jose Omar Rivas Sorto of Maryland and the second victim in connection with the crime. On February 22, 20-year-old Nicklous Pendleton of Gordonsville was struck by gunfire on Hardy Drive before he got into a car and crashed on Page Street. He died at the hospital, and his murder remains unsolved. Just six days later, 36-year-old Eldridge Vandrew Smith, a member of the B.U.C.K. Squad, was found inside a parked SUV on Grove Street. He had been shot multiple times, and was pronounced dead at the scene. On February 3, the CPD arrested Tadashi Demetrius Keys of Charlottesville in connection with the murder. 

Police are responsible for the city’s February 28 homicide, which occurred when an Albemarle Police Department detective tried to approach 44-year-old Sites, a wanted man with a criminal record, in Charlottesville. Sites, a county resident, fled on foot to a wooded area on Emmet Street near the 250 bypass and fired several rounds. After police issued a shelter in place order and established a perimeter, Sites fled the woods toward the Red Roof Inn parking lot, where police confronted him. Police claim they tried unsuccessfully to use less lethal force, and shot Sites after he pointed a firearm at the officers. Sites died of his injuries at the hospital. (An eyewitness told The Daily Progress that he did not see Sites point a gun at police, and “kept putting a gun to his head.” Sites’ fiancée, Christina Martinez, and his father, Cecil Sites, were at the scene, and also claimed Sites, who had mental health issues, only pointed a gun at himself, not the officers.)

During the community forum, Kochis, who was appointed on January 16, told the crowd of about 150 that the CPD currently has a 30 percent vacancy rate. While he is working to boost the department’s recruitment efforts and improve retention rates, “I just don’t have the luxury of having a police officer on every block,” he said. 

Still, Kochis has implemented new measures in an effort to stop and prevent shootings, including increasing officer patrols in three “hotspot” areas where the majority of recent shootings have occurred: the Corner, 10th & Page, and neighborhoods near 10th & Page. He has also assigned a full-time detective to the FBI Safe Streets Task Force, which investigates where guns are coming from and the root causes of shootings. And he plans to assign a sergeant as a community involvement coordinator, and create a citizens police academy.

Building relationships and trust between the police and community is among the chief’s top priorities. Since starting the job, he has held weekly walk-and-talks in different neighborhoods, knocking on doors and speaking with residents about their concerns.

In an interview with C-VILLE, Kochis, who led the Warrenton Police Department for three years before coming to Charlottesville, further stressed the importance of strong community-police relationships.

“We are literally building this from the ground up,” he said. “For the past four to five years, the police department has really had a wall up with the community. Just basic community events [to] involve the community with the police … those have been nonexistent.” (In 2019, the Charlottesville Police Foundation hosted C’ville Night Out.)

During the neighborhood walk-and-talks, the chief has heard from residents that “they want us in their communities. … They want to get to know us, and for us to know them,” he said. “The fact that someone feels comfortable enough to pull out a gun in broad daylight and shoot another individual—that will tell you that people have become used to not seeing the police.”

In November, Kochis, who also served as a commander in the Alexandria Police Department for 15 years, was named as a finalist for the city’s police chief position, along with then-interim CPD chief captain Latroy “Tito” Durrette and Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office Commander Easton McDonald. The following month, interim City Manager Michael Rogers announced that he had chosen Kochis after a months-long community engagement, recruitment, and selection process led by POLIHIRE. City Council unanimously voted in favor of the appointment.

Rogers said he spoke with several community organizations regarding Kochis’ track record—including Warrenton’s Black Lives Matter chapter, a Baptist church, and the local NAACP—and received “glowing reports.” Mayor Lloyd Snook praised Kochis’ ability to bring stability to the CPD—before Kochis took over the WPD in 2020, the town had three chiefs in 18 months. As chief, Kochis filled every vacancy, recruited more women officers, and implemented a program allowing people to anonymously rate officers. 

Strong community relationships helped Kochis reduce gun violence in Warrenton. After several shootings occurred within just two weeks in the town, the WPD worked with its community action team—which included the local NAACP and faith leaders—“to address those issues, and were very successful in doing so,” he told C-VILLE. 

B.U.C.K. Squad Executive Director Herb Dickerson says that some beefs start on social media. Photo by John Robinson.

But he stressed that he does not intend to overpolice communities in Charlottesville. “It’s not just a simple answer as going out there and arresting everybody. …There are people who [are] terrorizing these communities who are going to be dealt with … but we are also not going to make the community feel like they are under siege.”

As for what’s fueling this spike in shootings and killings, the chief pointed to cracks in social support systems, like mental health care.

“When these systems typically fail, there’s only one system left—and unfortunately, that’s the criminal justice system,” he said. “We’re not always best suited to deal with some of these root causes of gun violence.”

Poverty—only worsened by the pandemic—is also a major driver of the increase in gun violence, according to Robert Gray of the Uhuru Foundation, which runs diversion and re-entry programs for youth.

“You’re dealing with people who are just in a dire state of poverty,” Gray told C-VILLE. “The city as a whole has a lot of work to do around systemic barriers.”

Social media plays a role in beefs too, according to Herb Dickerson, executive director of the B.U.C.K. Squad. 

“Facebook, Instagram, Twitter [have] created the internet gangsta. … As soon as someone comes to confront you about it, that’s how it all begins,” said Dickerson, who is currently working to secure funding for the squad to increase its community presence. “We done talked about each other and threatened each other so much … by the time I see you, all I have left to do is shoot.”

To prevent shootings, Daniel Fairley, Charlottesville’s youth opportunity coordinator who is focused on Black male achievement, stresses the importance of giving at-risk youth hope and opportunity “so they don’t find themselves viewing the world as, ‘We don’t know if we’re going to be here next … I’ll find a way to survive,’” he said. “And that may come with picking up a gun and trying to defend [themselves].”

When asked about City Council’s plans to address gun violence, Councilor Brian Pinkston voiced support for paying police a “competitive wage,” and funding mental health initiatives, affordable housing, and other social programs. Councilor Juandiego Wade, who was Eldridge Smith’s former mentor, lamented the “availability of guns” in the country, and called for more opportunities for young people. “To the extent that these cases are personal beefs, groups like the B.U.C.K. Squad can be helpful,” said Mayor Lloyd Snook in an email.

Councilor Michael Payne pointed out that while overall crime has decreased nationwide, shootings and murders are particularly on the rise. “Defining the problem is critical. It’s vital that we don’t get the false idea that rolling back criminal justice reform and returning to failed mass incarceration policies will work,” he said in an email.

“All that said, the recent rise in shootings and the death and fear it’s created in neighborhoods is all too real,” continued Payne. “Charlottesville has to invest in carefully considered, data-driven solutions,” including youth jobs and internships, mentorship programs, improved street lighting, and intentional community policing.

During last week’s community forum, attendees also pushed for more opportunities for youth in the area.

“There’s really nothing for us to do here. That’s why our peers are involved in so much stuff in the streets,” said Charlottesville High School student Zeniah Bryant. “They don’t feel welcome in school so when they come that’s why they do what they do and then they get suspended. And then they get pushed out of school and into the streets, and fall into these cycles.” 

“We’re counting on you to do something for us,” she said, motioning to the crowd. “Because it’s a cry for help.”

A 10th and Page resident asked the chief to appoint citizen captains in the city’s neighborhoods, and hold regular meetings with them. City of Promise Executive Director Mary Coleman encouraged Kochis to create an academy “where the police come for 12 weeks and listen to the citizens” to help mitigate unconscious bias. 

Another attendee pushed the chief to call on politicians and advocate for the community’s basic needs, like social safety programs. “That’s what addresses crime. … Cops don’t keep us safe. We keep us safe as a community,” she said.

Dorenda Johnson specifically called on the Black community to take action.

“We have young children, young men, young teenagers with guns, and they can’t even spell,” said Johnson. “My Black brothers and sisters here—we need to depend on each other.”

In addition to suggesting solutions, multiple people questioned the chief’s new measures, and criticized the fractured relationship between the police and the community.

Civil rights lawyer Jeff Fogel pushed back against the hotspot patrols, and urged Kochis to fix the racial disparities in the city’s arrest rates. “[The patrols are] not going to be successful at stopping crime. … And I hope you didn’t mean when you said you’d like to see a cop on every corner. We don’t want a cop on every corner.”

Kochis agreed that police cannot stop crime on their own, pointing to the failed mental health, education, and substance abuse treatment systems. “We need to prop up those other systems and work with them so we don’t have to do their job.”

Regarding the patrols, “how are you going to evaluate when to stop the pressure?” asked activist Harold Folley. “Because what happens when you don’t? You’re going to be harassing a lot of Black and brown kids for nothing?” 

Kochis urged residents to report any officer who harasses them. “Being in communities engaging with residents … that shouldn’t look like harassing.” 

Gloria Beard claimed many officers are “mean” and “don’t even speak” to residents. “There’s police on the force that the community has complained about for years that are still on the force,” said Katrina Turner.  

“It’s no trust in this police department,” added Ronnie Megginson, owner of Kulture Vibez. “We even call for y’all help when we have events across the street [at South and Central] to keep everybody safe [and] y’all leave us hanging.” 

Activist Don Gathers called for solutions to gun violence “without putting our minority communities at risk and at harm.”

“Going back to 2017, the police department failed this community,” he said. “You can’t expect us to welcome you with open arms and trust you.”

Another Black resident urged the crowd not to judge the youth. “Y’all ain’t never lived through this before with a 15-year-old mindset that’s been fucked up by the system.”

Terry Anderson, mother of Daquain Anderson, who died after being shot near Court Square in September, questioned why police have not solved his murder yet. Kochis promised to meet with her in private.

“We’ve had sleepless nights. We can’t eat. … His killers are still out there,” said Francine Chambers, Anderson’s relative. “You get them guns off the street. … This is a hot mess.”