Woman killed in Riviera shooting
Five others wounded; victim’s brother was shot, killed in city in ’16.
When a “lone
RIVIERA BEACH — male” shot and killed Norriesha Hills and injured five men late Monday outside a Riviera Beach home, he outraged a city.
Within hours, dozens of tributes to the 22-year-old mother of two young boys flooded her Facebook page. Behind the expressions of grief was an underlying feeling of betrayal. The gunman violated the so-called rules of the street: “No women, no kids.”
Since January 2016, only four of the city’s 30 homicide victims have been female, a Palm Beach Post database shows. And of those, only Hills and 15-year-old Makayla Dennard were killed by someone other than a boyfriend or husband.
Dennard’s Dec. 27, 2016, death prompted Riviera Beach officials to conduct news conferences addressing the city’s ballooning gun violence. By March, authorities arrested three teenagers in her death.
City polic esa y Monday night’s shooting on the 2100 block of West 28th Street was targeted. However, they haven’t said whether Hills, who went by “Nana,” was the intended target.
The gunfire started shortly
before 10: 3 0 p.m. in the National Village neighborhood west of North Congress Avenue and north of West Blue Heron Boulevard. Police said the gunman opened fire at the group of six from a few yards east of where they were.
Hills was dead when offi- cers arrived. Five men, all in their 20s, were injured. Riviera Beach police identified them Tuesday afternoon as Decobe Williams, Pierre Charles, Reginald Minor, Jamal Forrest and Deandre Witherspoon. All were taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
Charles and Forrest were in critical condition and Williams in fair condition Tues
day afternoon. Minor and Witherspoon were discharged from the hospital Tuesday, a spokesman for St. Mary’s said.
Police wouldn’t comment on possible motives in the shooting. They did not pro- vide any information on the suspected gunman.
In less than a year, two other people have been killed in that neigh-borhood, The Palm Beach Post database shows.
In February, William Burgess I 28, was killed and I, were two other men injured in a shooting in the neighborhood.
And on a Sunday afternoon in October, 21-year-old Timothy Tatum was gunned down in a drive-by shooting. His 8-month-old daughter was only feet away.
No one has been arrested in either of those killings. Police would not say whether they are believed to be connected to Monday night’s shooting.
Hills’ younger brother, Narjaa “Poppy” Frazier, was killed in the city almost exactly two years ago, said Hills’ longtime friend Arketha Harper.
The 17-year-old was shot dead by his younger sister’s boyfriend at Stony
brook Apartments on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Trevaris Edon, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty in February to killing Frazier and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Harper said she and Hills had been close friends for eight years. Hills was a goofy, loving woman and an incredibly loyal friend, Harper said.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Riviera Beach police at 561-845-4123 or Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County at 800-458TIPS (8477).