A 17-year-old high school student was shot and killed in Newport News on Tuesday morning — a week after a 15-year-old student was killed at a school bus stop about 3 miles away.
Police responded at about 7 a.m. to the Cottage Grove Apartments, off Jefferson Avenue south of Briarfield Road, following an alert from ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system.
Police found the teen lying on the ground in the 700 block of Gloucester Drive, inside the complex. He died at the hospital a short time later.
“An officer tried to save that young man’s life,” Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said, choking up briefly as he described the rescue attempt that he said he viewed on video footage.
Drew began a news conference at police headquarters Tuesday morning by saying he was “frustrated that we’re having this conversation.”
Any loss of life is a tragedy, he said, “but when we start talking about youth and teenagers, we’re in another conversation.”
Drew said he wanted to clear up rumors that that the killing stemmed from a dispute inside a school that then “spilled over into the community.”
“We’re not tying this to an incident or a situation that has happened inside or at the schools,” he said.
Still, Drew said he wouldn’t rule out that the shooting was connected to the slaying of the 15-year-old Menchville High School student who was shot last week while waiting for the school bus on 16th Street and Garden Drive at Stuart Gardens.
“We’re two or three hours in,” Drew said, saying detectives are still tracking down leads and making such a connection between the cases would be “premature.”
The shooter in Tuesday’s killing is still at large. No arrests have been made in either case, and police have not released motives in either one.
This week’s slaying at Cottage Grove, he said, did not take place at a bus stop, and it was not immediately clear whether the slain teen was on his way to school when he was killed. High schools in Newport News begin at 7:10 a.m. daily, or about 10 minutes after Tuesday’s shooting.
Drew declined to say which high school the 17-year-old attended, though both the chief and Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones visited Heritage High School — less than half a mile from the shooting site — shortly after the slaying.
Later, Drew predicted that both of the killings would be solved. “We have good information coming in,” he said. “People are going to be held accountable.”
Jones said at the news conference that the shootings in both cases appear to have stemmed from particular issues between the young people.
“These appear to be targeted,” he said. “These are not random acts of violence.”
Still, Jones said, “This is unacceptable in the city of Newport News, and this has to stop.”
“I’m tired of getting the phone calls in the morning,” the mayor added. “I’m tired of going down to the scene. This is on parents. This is on families. There is no excuse for not knowing what your child has in their bedroom. If someone lives in your house, you should know exactly what they’re doing.”
Jones went to the crime scene Tuesday morning with Newport News City Council member John Eley, who represents the South District.
He and Drew then visited Heritage.
“The call to action that I have for you is, if you see something, please let us know,” Jones said at the news conference. “We have individuals that are trying to go to school. We have an amazing community, (and) I refuse to let these acts of violence characterize our city in a negative light. This is a great place to live, to work and to raise your family, and this has to stop.”
Drew said it struck him that parents at Heritage felt the need to remove their children from school on Tuesday.
“I saw kids’ faces in that hallway, and I saw parents taking their kids out of school, and that bothers me,” Drew said. “I want the students that are going to school here … to know that they’re safe being in our schools, and they’re going to be safe in these communities, and these acts aren’t going to be tolerated.”
Newport News Public Schools released a statement shortly before the press conference.
“While this undoubtedly will impact our community, our school staff remains diligent in ensuring the well-being of our students,” the statement reads. “Student support specialists and counselors are available to talk with students and families at all schools who may need support as they hear and learn more about these types of violent events in our community and across the country.”
Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com
Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com
