Teenager killed in ‘normally safe’ neighborhood
2 others seriously injured in Newport News shooting
NEWPORT NEWS — Newport News police identified the man who was killed in a triple shooting Thursday afternoon on 74th Street.
Rey’ll Parks, 18, of Hampton, ran into the backyard of a home on Roanoke Avenue — on the corner of 74th — where he collapsed in front of a small shed. A man who happened to be walking by tried to help by giving the teen CPR before medics arrived. But Parks died at the scene.
He is Newport News’ 45th homicide of 2023 — the most in the city since at least 1970, according to Daily Press records.
No arrests have been made.
Neighbors in the area said the shooting took place on 74th Street, with about 10 shots ringing out in what appeared to be a shootout about 50 yards from Roanoke Avenue.
While Parks ran into the backyard of a Roanoke Avenue home, a juvenile — shot in the abdomen — turned a corner and ran about a block before collapsing in front of a home in the 7200 block of Roanoke Avenue, neighbors said. The 17-year-old was taken to the hospital, police said.
Immediately after the shooting, neighbors said, a gray van sped down 74th Street and stopped to pick up another man, with an armed male running back to help him from the roadway and carry him into the van. The van then sped down down Roanoke Avenue toward Mercury Boulevard.
Police said Thursday that the 17-year-old and 21-year-old man suffered wounds that appeared to be life-threatening. But there were no updates Friday to their conditions.
Law enforcement activity on Thursday afternoon centered largely on the home in the 7200 block of Roanoke, with several detectives and a K-9 officer still going in and out after 3 p.m.
Earlene Parrot, 62, who lives on Roanoke Avenue, said shootings are uncommon in the area, unlike further down Roanoke.
“It’s normally very safe,” she said. “We’ve never had any problems down on this end.”
However, there was another shootout in the area about a month ago in which a bullet ended up in a home, another neighbor said.
“It’s sad for the families at Christmastime,” said neighbor Lavada Allen, 48, on Roanoke Avenue, who said she saw the man on the ground in her neighbor’s yard before he died. “It’s sad because they were probably shot over nothing important.”