HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) — A trio of recent drive-by shootings in a Hampton neighborhood have left residents there living in fear.
The first shooting at the corner of North Mallory Street and East Virginia Avenue in Hampton took place Aug. 31, the second came Sept. 2 and then the most recent shooting there came at 1:33 a.m. Thursday.
10 On Your Side obtained a neighbor’s doorbell audio of rapid gunfire in that area. That neighbor, who is not being identified, said her building has been shot up three times now, noting the more than dozen bullets that struck her house and penetrated inside it.
“This is my house being shot up 16 times,” she told 10 On Your Side. “My kids and all my high school kids were asleep right here and then, that’s my room,” pointing to the middle window. “Look at all the shots. I mean, it went through. Almost hit my daughter on the head.”
She has pictures of bullet holes in windows, in the TV and of several in the walls.
“It just wouldn’t stop,” she said. “Pop, pop, pop. It just wouldn’t stop, and it just kept on going. I jumped up to go check and make sure my kids were OK. That was the first thing. That was all that was on my mind.”
She was in the bedroom when bullets were whizzing by her head.
“Yes, they were,” she said. “Yes. Yes. I hear it, and I’m in listening because I’m hearing glass breaking.”””
Hampton Police Det. Andrew Green was at the scene working the street to find the serial drive-by shooters.
“We are still trying to determine who and why,” Green said.
About the weapon, Green would only say this: “From the other incidents, the best I can tell, based on audio and casings, it looks like two shooters from one car.”
Asked about the three shootings toward the same house since Aug. 31, Green believes the house is being targeted.
“Is this a targeted attack? That is the logical conclusion to come to,” Green said, “since that house is being targeted and this is still under investigation.”
Doorbell video has not produced a good hit, yet, but police are optimistic.
In the meantime, the victim would like, at least, a camera at the intersection to record the drive-by shootings.
She also wants to move, and her landlord agrees.
“Yeah, they told me that it’s not safe,” she said. “They told me that it’s best that I should move.”
Green, working leads, may have something.
“I have gotten some connections with perhaps another incident that happened in the city,” Green said. “What I’ve been told [is that] there may be some connection here.”
Another neighbor, awakened by the gunfire, had this to say: “I’m thinking it is gang related. We need to solve problems not with guns.”
For now, Green said his one and only job now is to find the drive-by shooters.
“It is the only thing on my dashboard,” Green said. “You can’t have the sense of a safe community when this is a repeat thing. It’s impossible. It is my duty to make people feel safe in their community.”