RICHMOND, Va. — A small bouquet wrapped in a red ribbon marks the spot where a 15-year-old girl was shot and killed in Richmond’s Jackson Ward neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon.
The flowers were left there by a neighbor, who called her death “devastating” and said the victim was a sweet girl who was always smiling.
The teen lived a block away from the 1100 block of North 1st Street. That is where the shooting happened around 5:30 p.m.
The girl’s family, who did not want to speak on camera, identified her as Dora Hill.
They remembered her as a caring girl who lit up the room and made people laugh. They also said she was almost motherly and that if people were hungry, she would cook for them.
The 15-year-old, they said, was most excited about her 16th birthday coming up next month and picking a dress for her school’s prom.
Richmond Police haven’t released many details about what led to her death, but said they were called for a shooting just before 5:30 p.m. near North 1st and East Hill Streets.
Neighbors said they heard an argument followed by a gunshot and screaming.
Police said that a “known person” — also a teenager — was with Hill at the time of the shooting and they were detained.
Officers added they were not looking for anyone else.
No charges against that person have been announced.
Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards, speaking to CBS 6’s Jon Burkett at the scene Wednesday, lamented the use of guns to solve disputes.
“If you know you’re the type of person that can’t control your temper, don’t bring a gun to an argument,” Edwards said. “You bring a gun to an argument, you don’t know what you’re going to do. Now we have a 15-year-old girl dead; we have another young man who is going to be likely in prison for the rest of his life, or a good chunk of his life. He’s ruined his own life because of this.”
Edwards said he will be addressing this and other recent shootings in his quarterly crime briefing in the next week or two.