PORTSMOUTH, Va. — A community is searching for answers after two teenagers were shot in Portsmouth Saturday night. A 14-year-old boy died from his injuries and a 15-year-old is in the hospital in critical condition. This happened near Park View Elementary School. Now, police are searching for two people of interest.
Portsmouth homeowner Gloria Forde witnessed the scene.
“I saw the paramedics bring a person on a stretcher with an oxygen mask on their face, which I assumed that person was still alive," said Forde.
Forde lives across the street from where police say the shooting took place near Park View Elementary School.
“Then I saw another police car come up and then I saw them running toward the back of the Jungle Gym and playground equipment," said Forde.
On Saturday around 6:30 pm, Portsmouth police found 14-year-old Jada McNeill and a 15-year-old with life-threatening gunshot wounds on Elm Avenue.
McNeill later died at the hospital and the other teenager is in critical condition.
“It’s a revolving circle that I noticed as a kid that this chain needs to be broken," said StoptheViolence757 member Rick Hoggard.
Hoggard lives in Portsmouth and is also a member of Stoptheviolence 757. It's a community organization bringing awareness to help anyone who has experienced some type of violence in their lives, like Hoggard.
“My brother was killed when I was 15. He was 17, and at 16, I was shot. I almost died also," said Hoggard.
Hoggard said he’s telling his story to try and help others realize violence is not the answer.
“Growing up around here, some of us don’t want to contribute to the violence, but they have to survive. That’s how they are thinking. So, we have to get that out to stop the violence first," said Hoggard.
Now police are searching for two people of interest in the shooting. Police said they were caught on camera running away from the scene.
“We don’t know whether they were running because they were scared or they were running because they were perpetrators. We don’t know why," said Forde.
13News Now has reached out to Portsmouth police for any new information and the condition of the 15-year-old. They were not available for comment at the time.