Three Women Dead, Two Injured in Norfolk, Virginia, Mass Shooting; Male Suspect at Large

Three women died and two were injured after a Wednesday evening mass shooting in Norfolk, Virginia. No one has been apprehended, even though police have said they know the male suspect's identity. They haven't publicly released his name yet.

The shooting occurred about 6 p.m. within a public housing community in the city's Young Terrace neighborhood. After the suspect shot one person, community members ran to their aid. The suspect then shot those who came to assist, Norfolk Police Chief Larry Boone told reporters, according to WAVY.

"As the community was trying to render aid, this coward shoots them," Boone said. He also said the initial shooting seemed to result from "a domestic violence situation," according to WAVY reporter Michelle Wolf.

Three women were pronounced dead at the scene. The two injured women were transported to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital with unspecified injuries.

Community residents surrounded an area taped off by police while investigators searched for evidence, The Virginian-Pilot reported. Police shielded the bodies from view as onlookers watched officers work.

Newsweek contacted the Norfolk Police Department for comment.

A local group called Stop the Violence ended their Wednesday night meeting when they heard about the shooting. The group will hold a community forum to discuss local gun violence from 2 to 5 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Kroc Center Gym, The Virginian-Pilot reported.

"We were trying to do something so positive and so constructive, and then we hear about something like this," group member Bilal Muhammed told the publication.

Three homicides have occurred in Norfolk over the last month, according to the city's crime mapping service, which uses publicly accessible crime data to offer visual maps and charts detailing local crimes.

Vehicle break-ins, vandalism and thefts make up nearly 70 percent of the local crimes reported over the last month.

Since 2014, the state of Virginia has had 73 mass shootings reported and verified, according to the Gun Violence Archive's (GVA) count, as of November 3. The archive collects and validates gun violence incidents from 7,500 sources daily.

Twelve of those mass shootings occurred in 2021, the GVA reported.

Boone addressed rising gun violence in the city during a July 2021 discussion alongside other local police chiefs.

"If you look at where we recover guns, it fits nicely in that hot spot. If you look at poverty rate, it fits nicely in that hot spot," Boone said, according to WVEC. "If you look at education, unemployment, they both fit nicely in that hot spot."

"There is a saying that when America has a cold, then Black and brown communities have the flu," he added, according to WAVY. "(Gun violence in communities of color) is impacted by crime, health issues, mental health, education, unemployment, and the police department is left to manage that.

"It is not a Norfolk thing. It is an urban thing. It is redlining, and under-education, unemployment, mental health," he added.

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