CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Many people living in Hampton Roads know someone who attends the University of Virginia. The shootings on November 13, 2022, rocked the community in Charlottesville and here in the 757.
Since then, UVA Police Chief Tim Longo said he and school administrators doubled down on safety measures.
“Gun violence is a deep, deep concern... not only for people who live in this community but for the moms and dads and families who send their loved ones here,” Longo said.
The police chief said they’ve added more manpower to their threat assessment team.
“We immediately began adding capacity to the threat assessment leadership team,” he said. “Now we have an associate director who has her Ph.D. in clinical work in this field, a long relationship with the university. We have dedicated a police sergeant who was also our victim witness advocate, and then we have also added some case workers or are in the process of adding case workers to the leadership team or threat assessment team. The team consists of a cross-section of people from across the university landscape."
They’ve beefed up ambassador patrols around UVA grounds. Longo said ambassadors are unarmed security officers who watch for suspicious activity or walk students to their destination.
“Be eyes and ears for law enforcement and to create that presence of safety in places where citizens have expressed concern,” he said. “What it does is allow the city police to begin concentrating their resources in areas that have seen visible violent crime.”
Longo said the area has seen increased gun violence over the last several months and he will meet monthly with police chiefs from Charlottesville, Albemarle, and Virginia State Police to brainstorm ways to combat the violence together.
They had their first meeting in February according to Longo, it’s a plan he started pulling together back in October 2022.
“I will commit my very best and be very intentional about how I use the resources at my disposal, to create and sustain a safe community to the very best of my abilities,” Longo said. “And that I take very seriously.”
In November, UVA President Jim Ryan asked Attorney General Jason Miyares to appoint a special counsel to investigate the shooting events on November 13. 13News Now reached out to Miyares’ office to see where this investigation stands are waiting to hear back.