Two people were killed and several people were injured in a shooting near a park following a high school graduation in Richmond on Tuesday, police said.
Edwards said a 19-year-old had been detained and is being charged with second-degree murder, with more charges to follow. He said police don’t think the shooting was gang-related but that the suspect knew at least one of the victims.
Another person was initially detained and had a firearm, but police don’t believe he is involved, Edwards said.
“This should have been a safe space,” Edwards said, “but someone decided to bring a gun and rain terror on our community.”
Those who were wounded included a 31-year-old with life-threatening injuries; and a male 14-year-old, a male 32-year-old, a male 55-year-old and a male 58-year-old with non-life-threatening injuries, Edwards said. He said a 9-year-old girl was hit by a car, treated at the scene and released, then went to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The theater overlooks Monroe Park, which is located on the corner of Laurel and Franklin streets near the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University.
Families and graduates were streaming out of the theater when at least eight shots were fired. People began running away — young women in dresses and high heels, parents holding babies and graduates still wearing bright green robes, yellow stoles and mortar boards. Police said the park was full of hundreds of people.
At the scene, a man was down on his back on the sidewalk corner, people crowded around him, while ambulances and police cars crowded the streets. A young man across the street broke down, steadying himself against the parking garage and wailing, while a woman nearby urged him to breathe. Then, for reasons that were not clear, people began running away from the scene again. A woman in high heels tripped as she tried to get away, and people scattered into a parking garage.
Minutes later, as people reunited with family members and returned to their cars, they embraced and cried.
The graduation ceremony Tuesday afternoon was supposed to be a culminating moment of triumph after a tough year for students and staff at Huguenot High School, which saw several incidents of gun violence in the past 10 months. A student, Jaden Carter, was shot and died near the high school campus in January. Another student was shot in September while walking to a bus stop.
During the graduation ceremony, Huguenot Principal Robert Gilstrap honored Carter and another student, Josie Cox, who died in a car crash in November. Gilstrap asked the hundreds of attendees to participate in a moment of silence to memorialize the students who should have been in attendance that day.
“Unfortunately, not all of our students have made it to this event,” he said. “Two of our Falcons tragically passed during this school year,” Gilstrap said, referring to the high school’s mascot.
In her remarks not long afterward, Class of 2023 salutatorian Emily Espina-Palma also spoke of her classmates who died.
“This chapter has been filled with many challenges, emotions and so many amazing people, people who aren’t in the room with us today,” she said. “But we still remember them.”
One student crossed the stage wearing a graduation cap emblazoned with pictures of Cox and Carter.
Hours later, Richmond Public Schools announced it would close all schools on Wednesday and canceled all graduations for the rest of the week.
Karina Elwood contributed to this report.