RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A heavy police presence gathered in Petersburg Thursday morning to investigate a deadly shooting at an apartment complex on Crater Road. Residents were asked to avoid this area.
The Petersburg Bureau of Police responded to the Crater Square Apartments and Townhomes — located in the 1000 block of South Crater Road — around 3 a.m. on Thursday morning. Upon arrival, officers found a man who had been shot.
The victim was later identified as 33-year-old Darrell Morton. Morton was pronounced dead at the scene.
“I’ve lived here for 30 years or more, and something like this has never happened so close to me. Every day you hear of a shooting of a child or somebody getting shot.” a neighbor who lives right across the street from the where the shooting happened said. “I’m scared to take my trash cans to the street. There’s no patrol in the area. It’s gotten less and less.”
Kemi Okeowo with Petersburg Police says violence does tend to spike in the summer months.
“I think in the summer and it’s not just Petersburg, but just localities in general in the summer, we do see an uptick in crime. That’s not a good thing, but it is a fact,” she said. “I think that in any instance where someone is doing harm to a fellow community member or to another person, it’s extremely unfortunate.”
Now, others living in the area are worried about how increasing violence in the neighborhood will impact them.
“I just worry about my husband. He has Parkinson’s. He sits on the front porch, and I worry about him being out here with all these guns,” the neighbor said. “The neighborhood has really changed since we moved here. And it changes every year.”
Police say an investigation into the deadly shooting is ongoing.
Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact the Petersburg Investigation Division at 804-732-4222.
This is a developing story, check back with 8News for updates.
