PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Portsmouth Police Chief Stephen Jenkins said he is outraged over the latest scene of violence in the city, calling on adult community members to step up and intervene.
Jenkins said a fight broke out between teenage girls Friday night on Farragut Street, resulting in a stray bullet hitting 10-year-old Keontre in his home.
Kevina Thornhill has joined what Chief Jenkins calls a sorority no one wants to be a part of.
"Of losing a child to senseless violence and over what? Over what?" he said during a vigil for the boy Sunday night.
Chief Jenkins calls Keontre an innocent bystander.
"If you don’t feel this as a 10-year-old minding his own business, then you’re dead inside. It just makes no sense," he said.
RELATED: 'I just want my son back' | Mother speaks out after 10-year-old killed by stray bullet in Portsmouth
This is the 19th homicide in Portsmouth this year and Jenkins said anyone they can find will be charged under the confines of Virginia law.
"Everybody that was complicit in this has earned a charge," said the Chief.
During a vigil for Keontre, Jenkins called on adults to break up the violence among young people.
At one point, he stood in the center of the grieving group and said "This is where you live. It's not a warzone. What are we fighting over?"
"What you saw was me making a plea to the men to get involved. I literally walked by and told every single [person] that would listen to me that they have to get involved with these kids," he said.
Former Portsmouth School Board member Ted Lamb lives around the corner from the Thornhill family. He said he remembers Keontre's smiling face as he walked by each day.
"They’d all go down to a house and they’d play football or I’ve seen them play basketball outside," he said.
The educator said before his young neighbor died, Keontre offered to help Lamb with his garden.
"We had a woodchip pile. He came over asked what we were going to do with it and I told him we were going to put it in the garden. He said he would like to help," said Lamb. "I was looking forward to him helping if he so wanted to."
He said he is fed up with the violence in Portsmouth.
"My first thought was, how tragic. Another one. Another child," he said. "This is getting to be ridiculous. And I'm being nice in using that term."
He agrees with Jenkins in his plea for adults to step in and break the cycle of violence.
"Parents and adults play a significant part," Lamb said. "Not all, but some might just want to relegate their responsibility to someone, something else, another agency."
He said he hopes the people responsible for taking Keontre's smile away are brought to justice.
"All of those that [are] responsible in any shape or form would be held accountable, that justice will be done," said Lamb.
So far, police have arrested 31-year-old Shawnday Ross and charged her with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Detectives are still searching for a person of interest, 26-year-old Cleon Banks who is considered armed and dangerous.
A stray bullet also hit 8-year-old Landyn Davis inside his Virginia Beach home in February, leaving him temporarily in a coma.
That same month, a bullet pierced a Newport News home and sent a 12-year-old child to the hospital.