Multiple killings Police killings

The 2023 slayings in Hampton Roads include two triple slayings on the Peninsula — still unsolved.

Three men — ages 61, 60 and 36 — were killed inside a home in the Denbigh section of Newport News in August, with the shooter fleeing on foot. In Hampton, a young couple in their 20s and their unborn child were slain last January in what police have termed a triple homicide.

There also have been 10 double slayings — two apiece in Hampton, Newport News and Portsmouth and one each in Norfolk, Chesapeake and Smithfield.

Twin brothers Portsmouth — 51-year-olds Alvin K. Joyner and Calvin R. Joyner — were gunned down in a robbery Feb. 13, as a third victim survived by playing dead. While two were arrested and charged in that case, no arrests have been made in a Newport News double slaying that took the lives of two teens, 17 and 15.

Two of last year’s local fatal gunshot victims were killed in shootouts with law enforcement officers.

The first happened in January of last year in Hampton. A task force of federal, state and local law enforcement officers was attempting to pull over Lamont Lewis, 46, to arrest him for the murder of his wife when Lewis got out of his car and began firing at them, according to police. The officers returned fire, and one, Chesapeake sheriff ’s deputy Scott Chambers, was wounded while Lewis was killed.

The other happened in August in Portsmouth. Officers responding to gunfire on Greenland Boulevard encountered an armed suspect, according to police.

Richard Albert Stoots, 56, was shot and killed by officers after he refused to put down his gun and fired at them, police said. Stoots’ wife was shot by her husband but survived.