PORTSMOUTH, Va. — One small city block in Downtown Portsmouth has been seeing a troubling increase in violent crime.
The 300 block of Effingham St. includes a coffee shop, a couple of restaurants, two hotels, an apartment complex, and a few other businesses.
The block only stretches for a third of a mile, but for an area so small, our 13News Now investigation found some big trouble.
A log of incident reports dating back a year shows Portsmouth police officers respond to the 300 block of Effingham St. almost twice a week, on average.
They've filed 91 incident reports since last year, including 15 calls for theft, six hit-and-runs, four aggravated assaults and three robberies.
Last summer, a shooting victim walked into the Starbucks at 361 Effingham St. looking for help. Police were working at the time to determine where in the city the shooting took place.
But, the most violent of calls this year came from one address in particular: The Riverwalk Inn at 333 Effingham St.
A masked gunman robbed the front desk clerk at the Inn on Jan. 23, 2022. The next day, police were back at the location responding to a double shooting. A week later, on Feb. 2, detectives responded once again to the Inn for another double shooting that left a man dead and a woman hurt.
The manager of the Riverwalk Inn told 13News Now (off camera) that crime can happen anywhere, and that he's noticed more police patrolling in light of the recent crime.
A spokeswoman for the Portsmouth Police Department acknowledged the trouble in the 300 block of Effingham Street, saying in a statement: "Steps are being taken to address the recent increase in crime there."