RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) - Richmond Police identified the woman shot and killed in a car Friday evening as 20-year-old Keonna Watkins, of Ferguson Lane.
Watkins death wasthe second in less than 24 hours where a victim was found shot to death inside a car. She was found in the driver's seat a car, sitting in the middle of Rusk Avenue.
Investigators say the similarities are just a coincidence, that there's no connection between the two.
“Started out with arguing, then I heard a gunshot,” said long-time resident Ronald Clendenin. “Then there was more arguing and another gun shot. Then even more arguing, then silence."
People living off Rusk Avenue say they'd like to say seeing police cruisers and crime tape come as a shock. But they say if they're going to be honest, that's simply not the case.
"It's beginning to become regular around here," said Clendenin.
Early Friday evening, police surrounded an Impala parked right in the middle of Rusk Avenue. “First we got a call for random shots, then [for] a person shot," said Richmond Police spokesman Gene Lepley.
He said inside the car they found a woman in her 20's in the driver seat, dead.
“The crime scene stretches a few blocks,” said Lepley. “There’s forensic evidence that would indicate that there was some sort of gun fight down there."
Some of the evidence was found near the parking lot of a church on Vial Road. The victim’s car was eventually carried away on a roll-back truck.
Police say the community is giving up good information, but they can always use more.
Meanwhile long time resident Clendenin says the crime scene is casting a grim spotlight on how things in his neighborhood have changed for the worse in recent years.
If you have any information on Friday’s homicide, please call Crime Stoppers at 780-1000.
