RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) - Neighbors say someone needs to tell the trigger man that 26th and Q isn't a shooting range.
Around 9:50 Thursday night, a barrage of bullets blanketed that area and people living there say it's a miracle no one was hurt. And that was just a few hours after officers had hit the streets in the East End on a bike blitz to get to know their neighbors better.
“[They were] very loud shots. They were rapid," said Katherine Rodgers.
People living near 26th Street say a Nissan Maxima pulled up and a gunman fired five shots, before popping off at least 15 more, according to some witness accounts.
“I looked out the window and didn't see anybody, but it was going on,” said Mac Rodgers.
Their grandson, 10-year-old Tai Rodgers, was downstairs when the shots rang out. “Tai was in the living room and it frightened him, so he ran upstairs," said his grandmother.
From right out the Rodgers’s front door you could throw a football to the back parking lot of a nearby building, which happens to be the home of The Richmond Police Department’s First Precinct.
“To come that close and shoot that many bullets behind the police precinct, something tells me they have no respect for law enforcement and they're a little crazy," said Mac Rodgers.
What worries neighbors most is that kids were out playing and all of them had to duck and run for cover. Seconds of random gunfire triggered a night of uneasy emotions. Some people were afraid to sleep, thinking whoever pulled the trigger could come back and unleash more.
“Too many of the wrong people have guns,” said Rodgers. “That's what the problem is."
Police say they're trying to find illegal guns with their “Felon and Firearms Initiative,” and so are asking everyone in that East End neighborhood to be on the look-out and call police if they see the suspect’s car again.
