RICHMOND, Va. -- After a particularly violent night in Central Virginia, CBS 6 Crime Insider Jon Burkett shared his thoughts about the recent crimes he has reported on in our region.
Those crimes include the shootings of five teenagers over a five-day span.
"It's been one of those days," Burkett wrote on Facebook early Friday. "Over the past 24 hours I've reported on two 16-year-old boys who were shot to death. One in Whitcomb Court. One in Chester. While these two cases are not connected, they do add to what's becoming a troubling and tragic theme in Central Virginia. Over the past five days, five teenagers have been shot in Central Virginia."
Three of the five shootings Burkett referenced were fatal.
"There was also a triple shooting tonight off of Spotsylvania Street near Mosby [Court] where a teen suffered a non-life threatening leg injury and a couple (adult male and female) died on scene," Burkett continued. "Most troubling is four young kids between the ages of two and nine will forever have that memory of their mom and dad violently taken from their lives. The pain in their family members' faces was prominent. The echo of sobbing was gut wrenching. While the violence is part of the vicious cycle that has plagued east Richmond for decades, someone asked the question tonight; 'How can we make it stop?' I got hung up on the word 'we' because that's what it's going to take. Teamwork. And all of us to stand up to those terrorizing these communities. We have to start demanding accountability from those in a position of power to make changes in the name of public safety. Not once, but three separate short bursts of gunfire erupted as I gathered video and as major crimes detectives gathered information and evidence. It shouldn't be this way. Parents shouldn't have to bury their kids and kids shouldn't have to see their parents suffer a violent end to life. WE have to and WE can do better."
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