HAMPTON, Va. — Wednesday night, Hampton Police Chief Mark Talbot said since the beginning of 2023, 20 people have either been killed or injured by gun violence, just in the city of Hampton.
After an extremely violent start to the year, Councilman Billy Hobbs began the city council meeting with a prayer over the city.
"As we weep over the dead and injured by guns in anguish, we recognize the blood stains of hatred, we hear the sounds of fear, the echoes of gunshots once again."
Talbot said they’re trying to bring the numbers back down.
He said so far in 2023, 10 people have been shot and killed in the city—one just Tuesday night. That’s more than half of the total number of homicides in 2021.
"That does represent a significant increase over previous years," Talbot said while updating the mayor and council members.
Last year, Hampton police investigated 24 homicides.
Talbot said the good news is violent crime overall was down 4% last year.
He said in all, they investigated 349 violent crimes, including homicides, assault and robbery, and more than 4,000 property crimes.
You can see in the following two photos how those numbers have fluctuated in the last 10 years:
"I’m very proud of where we ended up at the end of 2022, but we’re not claiming victory by any stretch of the imagination," said Talbot.
Talbot said despite popular belief, this spike in gun violence is not driven by teens. The people pulling the trigger and the ones getting hurt or killed are, on average, 25-year-old men.
He said the victims and offenders almost always know each other.
"If women are killed, it’s almost exclusively by someone who said they loved them at some point," Talbot said.
Talbot has previously said Virginia State Police and federal agencies will step in to help, primarily to deal with traffic enforcement while the division handles violent crimes.
They’re also partnering with neighborhood watch programs, collaborating with different units within the division and changing up shifts.
"We’d like to talk to the people in there, whether or not you saw anything, or you heard anything, we want to have a better understanding of what life and living is like in those neighborhoods," said Talbot.
Talbot said January marks the highest number of homicides in a single month since he took over the division in 2021.
Talbot emphasized this gun violence is centralized in a few neighborhoods in the city. He also notes most of these shootings are not random.