RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Family members and leaders are speaking out after a man was shot and killed in South Richmond.
Ricky Johnson says he was cousins with the victim. A couple of months ago, Johnson lost another cousin to gun violence — 15-year-old Tynashia Humphrey.
“First it was my cousin on my dad’s side,” he said. “Now it’s my cousin on my mother’s side.”
At 2:07 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 9, officers were called to the 2200 block of Ruffin Road for a reported shooting. Upon arrival, however, officers did not find any victims. A short time later, a man with a gunshot wound was found in the 5600 block of Warwick Road.
Detectives determined that the man had been shot on Ruffin Road and attempted to travel to the hospital in a silver sedan before winding up at the Warwick Road location. EMS transported the man to a nearby hospital where he died from his injury.
The victim’s family told 8News that his girlfriend was behind the wheel before the crash on Warwick Road.
“I got a cousin I got to make arrangements for. How does this make sense?” Johnson said. “One person chose to take somebody out of my family and I’m supposed to turn the other way and think that it’s okay? And it’s not.”
Pastor Valerie Coley of a local church said the violence is due to a lack of compassion for one another.
“I’m tired of the devalue that we have for one another,” Coley said. “There’s no way that you can love your brother that looks like you and kill him. There’s no way you can say you love yourself and kill that man who looks like you.”
Both Coley and Johnson are calling for city leaders to step in and solve this issue.
“It’s not a check I can write to make my family feel good right now,” Johnson said. “You can’t keep throwing money out there. You gotta educate people and let them know. This is where you live. Take a stand for it.”
Just hours after reporting this shooting, another shooting occurred a couple of blocks away on Ruffin Road. Police have said it is unknown at this time if the two shootings are related.
Yesterday, 8News reported that 52 people had died in firearm-related homicides in the city of Richmond so far this year, two more have now been added to that list.
