Adult killed in three separate Petersburg shootings that also saw three juveniles hit

Bill Atkinson, The Progress-Index
·2 min read
Police tape ropes off the office building on Fort Mahone Street in Petersburg, Virginia, Saturday, April 23, 2022. The night before, a man was shot in the parking lot and later died. He was one of six people shot in three separate incidents across Petersburg Friday night.
Police tape ropes off the office building on Fort Mahone Street in Petersburg, Virginia, Saturday, April 23, 2022. The night before, a man was shot in the parking lot and later died. He was one of six people shot in three separate incidents across Petersburg Friday night.

PETERSBURG — One adult was killed and five others, including four juveniles, were injured in a spate of three shootings across the city within an hour of each other

The spree started around 8:45 p.m. in the parking lot of an office building on Fort Mahone Street just behind the Petersburg School Board headquarters, said Deputy Police Chief Emanuel Chambliss. Thirty-year-old Jamar Jones of Petersburg was found with a gunshot wound in his head and was taken to Bon Secours Southside Medical Center where he later died.

About 10 minutes later, shots were fired at a residence in the 200 block of Holly Hill Drive in Petersburg's Oakhurst neighborhood. Four people — one woman and three juveniles ages 11, 12 and 16 — had been shot and were also taken to SMC. Their conditions are unknown at this time.

While police were at the scene of the Holly Hill shooting, dispatchers reported a third shooting, this time at the Aubrey Apartments complex on Boydton Plank Road in the city's western end. The victim, a juvenile whose age were not immediately available, was taken to an SMC emergency center in Colonial Heights, then transferred to a hospital in Richmond.

More: Police in Petersburg, Hopewell arrest suspects Tuesday in separate early April murders

"At this time, no arrests have been made, and it is not known if any of the shootings are related," Chambliss said.

Friday night's shooting death was the second in the city this week. On Easter morning April 17, a 25-year-old Dinwiddie man was shot as he drove on Interstate 85 southbound near the Squirrel Level Road exit. He managed to get his car off the highway at the very next exit on U.S. Route 1 and was found dead in the parking lot of a gas station.

So far, seven people have been shot to death in Petersburg since Feb. 28 of this year. That is four more than the number of people killed by this same time in 2021 when the city went on to record 18 homicides.

On social media, people paid their respects to the victims' families and expressed horror at the spate of shootings over that hour or so period.

"My heart is crushed into a million pieces," one person wrote on the Facebook page of Natasha Parham, Jones' mother.

Four people, including three juveniles, were shot at this house on Holly Hill Drive in Petersburg's Oakhurst neighborhood Friday, April 22, 2022. The residence was one of three reported shooting scenes Friday night across Petersburg, resulting in six people being injured. One person was killed.
Four people, including three juveniles, were shot at this house on Holly Hill Drive in Petersburg's Oakhurst neighborhood Friday, April 22, 2022. The residence was one of three reported shooting scenes Friday night across Petersburg, resulting in six people being injured. One person was killed.

"Please pray for Petersburg Va on Holly Hill Drive where we live on the same street where 4 people just got shot," another posted on Facebook. "They have blocked our neighborhood, teenagers are shooting each other. Two of them were kids. My heart is all [to] pieces."

Anyone with information about any of these shootings Friday night is asked to contact Petersburg-Dinwiddie Crime Solvers at (804) 861-1212 or use the P3Tips mobile app.

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is a journalist and daily news coach for USA TODAY' Network's Atlantic Region which includes Virginia. He is based in Petersburg, Virginia. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Petersburg man killed in a spate of shootings, three juveniles injured