Roanoke, VA – A weekend of violence has left the Roanoke community reeling after three separate shootings occurred within 48 hours, two involving teens.
On Saturday afternoon, two teens were injured in a shooting on Crescent Street. That night, another incident unfolded on Hunt Avenue, where police say a man opened fire into a crowd. Early Sunday morning, officers responded to 12th Street SW and found 43-year-old, Isaac “Ike” Cunningham, with multiple gunshot wounds. He died at the scene.
Cunningham was no stranger to tragedy. Just last summer, his 15-year-old son was also shot and killed.
10 News asked city leaders what more could be done to stop the cycle of violence. Roanoke Mayor, Joe Cobb, says the city is working to address the youth gun violence issue through prevention and support.
“It’s tragic, it’s alarming,” Cobb said regarding the weekend incidents. " In the last two years, we’ve seen a 65% reduction in homicides and a 55% reduction of gun violence injuries. We want to continue that trend. We just received a new installment of the Safer Communities Grant. We have a lot of extraordinary programs in place."
Cobb also stressed gun violence can’t be tackled in isolation but must be approached as a public health issue.
“We can look at gun violence, substance use disorder, homelessness, mental health crises — very often they’re interrelated. And so that’s why we want to have a multifaceted, complex examination of this.”
For Rita Joyce, co-founder of the gun violence prevention group, FedUp, the pain is all too familiar.
“My son was killed in 2004,” Joyce said. “What I see right now is the assailants are getting younger and younger. Every time I hear about another gun victim, immediately my heart goes to the family, especially the mother, because hurt people hurt people. That’s why we exist. We try to fight to end gun violence and the only way to do that is to reach families and try to find resources to prevent more of these tragedies, especially in the zip code we are living in.”
Longtime business owner Walter Williams, who has run an auto shop near the site of Sunday’s shooting for 35 years, says he’s watched the culture shift from fistfights to firearms.
“It’s just the society we live in now. Everybody don’t wanna argue, don’t wanna have a discussion. Best thing for them to do is just pick up a gun and shoot you,” he said. “A lot of my friends have died because of that. One of my closest friends, we still don’t know why the kid shot him.”
Police say investigations into all three cases remain ongoing. No motives have been released as of Monday.