CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Charlottesville Police arrested a 15-year old juvenile male Thursday morning in connection with the shots fired incident Saturday night at a Halloween “Trunk or Treat” event, Charlottesville Chief of Police Michael Kochis announced at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
The juvenile male has been charged with attempted malicious wounding and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. Kochis said at the time of the shooting, the suspect was out on probation for a prior felony.
“There was an incident between a few individuals. This person, this suspect came, got involved, and for some reason, pulled out a gun and just started shooting,” Kochis said of the incident. He added he did not know who the other individuals involved were.
While no one was hit that night, Kochis made clear that doesn’t mean people are not hurt.
“On Sunday, after this incident, the day after, my phone didn’t stop,” Kochis said. “I heard from an overwhelming number of community members and community leaders who shared cellphone video of the incident and described the horror of having to flee the park with their children. We were lucky no one was trampled.”
With the community looking for a way to move forward, Kochis said an honest conversation about what happened on Saturday, and how, was needed.
“Look, I’m not here to point fingers, I just want to say plainly that a young person who had already shown us he was capable of committing a serious crime was in a park with a .45-caliber pistol, allegedly, firing towards other children,” Kochis said. “Our community deserves an honest conversation about how that happened and I plan to have it.
“We spend a lot of time in this community talking about getting upstream, addressing the root causes of violence before a young person ever picks up a gun, and I truly believe in that work, and it needs to keep being done. But we also have to have an honest and frank conversation about the impact this type of violence has on victims and the safety of our entire community.”
Kochis shared one particular interaction he had Wednesday while helping a 4th grader with his homework at The Boys & Girls Club during his weekly visit.
“We were doing math and he looked up at me and said, ‘Chief, were you at the park when the shooting happened?’ I told him, ‘No I wasn’t, were you?'” Kochis said. “He simply looked up and said, ‘Yeah, I was,’ and looked down. Then he went down and started doing his homework again.
“That’s the real impact of this, a 9-year old carrying that night, what happened with him in the park, quietly while he did his math homework.”
In an effort to reach out and hear from the community following Saturday’s shooting, Kochis said there will be a community town hall about the incident, as well as gun violence as a whole and conflict resolution, that will be held at the Boys & Girls Club at Cherry Ave. Monday evening from 5-6:30 p.m.
Kochis also said he has also spoken to the Trunk or Treat’s organizers, Wes Bellamy and Nicholas Feggans, and praised them for the work they do.
“They are trying to bring events to this community where people can do things safely and have a good time,” he said. “And we’re going to continue to work with them to have events.”
Kochis told Cville Right Now on Monday that his department will have to consider having a heavier presence at events going forward, despite both the cost and negative optics that would bring.
“Not having events like this, that’s not how this works, we can’t stop” he said Thursday. “We just have to adjust and make sure we can make them safe.”
