One killed, one injured in shooting
Published 9:44 pm Thursday, April 25, 2013
A gunfight that stretched across an entire block killed a young woman and wounded another woman early Thursday morning on Hunter Street.
Diana Yvette Jones, 28, died at the scene after several bullets struck the covered porch where she and her friend, Veronica Conjo Wiggins-Ingram, 42, were sitting. Jones lived across the street.
Charlie “CJ” Wiggins Jr. lives at the house where his sister and Jones were shot. He had gone to IHOP to get something to eat and passed several police officers speeding as he went, but figured they were headed someplace else. He arrived back home later to find the commotion.
The porch where the women were sitting is mere feet from where 14-year-old Diane Holland fell dead in July 2005 after being shot from a passing car.
“I ain’t going nowhere,” Wiggins said of the violence in the neighborhood. “Trouble’s going somewhere.”
Police had most of the 300 block taped off with crime scene tape until after noon. Dispatchers in the city’s 911 center had received several calls reporting shots fired in the area at 1:07 a.m.
“I heard a whole lot of shooting,” nearby resident Daniel Burt said. “Then I heard a car take off way fast. There’s so much stuff going on.”
Wiggins said he had been told someone was robbed in the neighborhood, and the resulting fight spilled over onto Hunter Street. A police report lists a robbery at gunpoint on nearby Charlotte Avenue about 20 minutes before the shooting.
Citing the ongoing investigation, city spokeswoman Diana Klink declined to confirm that the robbery had something to do with the shooting or confirm that there were two groups of people shooting at each other from opposite ends of the block.
Wiggins said his sister, who was airlifted to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, was set to undergo surgery Thursday afternoon. She had wounds to her hand and shoulder, he said.
She was listed in good condition by Thursday evening.
He has known Jones since she moved in across the street about three years ago. He described her as a “nice person, cool and down to earth.”
“It’s hard to believe,” he said of the violence.
It was the city’s fourth homicide of 2013, compared to none at this time last year. Only two homicides occurred in the city in all of 2012.
All of this year’s deaths have been shootings. No one has been arrested in any of the crimes.
Anyone who has information is asked to call Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP. Callers to Crime Line never have to give their names or appear in court, and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.