Redouble efforts to curb violence

Young Terrace shooting shows the hill to climb to prevent violent crime

Last week’s shooting at the Young Terrace public housing complex in Norfolk was an unmitigated tragedy. Three people were killed and two others were wounded. One person could spend years behind bars. The entire community was plunged into a mix of sorrow, grief, anger and outrage.

We could wring our hands or offer some words of comfort, but that’s a weak substitute for the type of determined, sweeping action that this sort of violent crime demands.

So what needs to change to protect the lives of area residents and to bolster public safety for all? Begin with what we know.

Police investigators are still piecing together the details but have said that the suspect, 19-year-old Ziontay Brian Ricardo Palmer, of Virginia Beach, arrived at the complex in a car with his 19-year-old girlfriend. He is accused of shooting and wounding his girlfriend, who sought help at the home of her mother.

Police say the suspect then shot and killed the woman’s mother, 45-year-old Nicole Lovewine, and 42-year-old Detra Brown. Neighbors who responded to cries for help were also shot; 44-year-old Sara Costine was killed and a 39-year-old woman was wounded.

Six lives were forever altered by a few minutes of madness. For the dead, there will be memorials, anguish and tears. For the wounded, a long road to physical and emotional recovery awaits. The suspect faces a lengthy legal process and the possibility of years behind bars.

Now recall that earlier this year, the seven mayors of Hampton Roads cities engaged in two online forums to discuss how to curb gun violence and deter young people from being perpetrators or victims of violence. The mayors heard from Anthony Smith, the executive director of Cities United, a non-profit group that advocates a comprehensive approach to fighting violent crime.

That group encourages cities to consider gun violence a public health crisis and address it accordingly. But what does that mean?

In the case of the Young Terrace shooting, it means intervening with young people — particularly young people who are poor and at greater risk of slipping through the cracks — to engage them and provide guidance bout education, employment and opportunities.

It means reaching out to families who live in public housing and doing the same: emphasizing job skills and training, and trying to match people with employment opportunities to break the cycle of poverty.

Police say there’s a domestic violence component to this tragedy, so it is right to question the resources available for victims of abusive partners and whether they are sufficient to help those in dire need. What sort of outreach do those services offer? Did the victim know they exist?

Cities United urges mentorships for youth, after-school programs, gang outreach and public-private partnerships all with the goal of avoiding what happened at Young Terrace last week. While cities should do more with criminal justice, such as tracking firearms to determine how a shooter obtained a weapon, they must also invest in outreach to low-income communities to promote economic mobility.

It means treating an incident like this as a community trauma. Indeed, who among us didn’t pause in reading reporting that there were children playing in the courtyard when the violence happened. Who knows how long that will echo in impressionable young minds and what sort of long-term psychological effects may manifest as a result.

How will we help these children to understand what happened? How can they make sense of the violent crime which happens around them too frequently, which touches their families and their friends, and which can make life seem hopeless?

We cannot save the three people killed in Young Terrace last week. But we can help the wounded, their families and all those affected by treating violent crime such as this is a public health crisis and bringing the necessary resources to bear on it.

We cannot allow this to stand. We can do better, and we must.