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5 people shot and another person injured after gunfire at Shockoe Bottom restaurant

The Richmond Times Dispatch and NBC 12 reports:

Five people were shot and a sixth person was injured early Saturday morning after two gunmen entered a restaurant in Shockoe Bottom, announced a robbery and opened fire, Richmond police said. The two armed males went into Liquid Cafe in the first block of North 18th Street about 5 a.m., said Richmond police spokesman Gene Lepley. During the encounter, shots were fired and five people were struck by gunfire, he said. Another person was injured, and police are trying to determine what caused those injuries. None of the victims has life-threatening injuries, Lepley said.

STATEMENT FROM POLICE CHIEF ALFRED DURHAM:

I am certain that we can all agree that this increasing gun violence in Shockoe Bottom is unacceptable – this cannot be the norm. Someone knows the perpetrators of this crime and we need the public’s help. We need people to call us when they hear or see something. We are already working with several stakeholders in the Shockoe Bottom community and we will continue to develop public safety strategies to reduce violence and bring a sense of calm to the area.

Anyone with information about this armed robbery is asked to call Major Crimes Detective Nathan Reese at (804) 510-4183 or contact Crime Stoppers at 780-1000 or at http://www.7801000.com. The P3 Tips Crime Stoppers app for smartphones may also be used. All three Crime Stoppers methods are anonymous.

Watch the coverage here:

Shockoe Bottom shooting

Happening now: Armed robbery and shooting investigation underway at a Shockoe Bottom business >> https://buff.ly/2oaUbCcOur Eric Perry NBC12 is there with the latest

Posted by NBC12 on Saturday, August 25, 2018

15 comments

Chris 08/25/2018 at 12:10 PM

Doesn’t matter, since we have a hip mayor. He will EVENTUALLY find an answer. But it might have to wait until he’s done getting all the publicity for standing up to those evil statues.

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Emily Klinedinst 08/25/2018 at 12:49 PM

Oh no not again

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BAF 08/25/2018 at 1:22 PM

No business should ever be robbed nor should anyone ever be the victim of violence, but there is a omething weird about this. The place closes at 3AM according to Google. This happened at 5. How did the robbers get in? Why were so many people still there after closing? Was this place violating their ABC license?

Based on Facebook comments this may not have been the first instance of violence here. I think there is more to this story.

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crd 08/25/2018 at 1:50 PM

So Shockoe Bottom has had a lot of gun violence here lately, as well as over the last twenty or so years, but the city sees fit to spend something like $14 million to take away the farmer’s market and install a pedestrian plaza. Am I the only one who sees that as a problem? And if I’m off on the money being spent on the “plaza” please forgive and feel free to correct, thanks. I’m just troubled by this. There was violence down there back in the 1990’s too. Back then Sa’ad El-Amin and Leonidis Young claimed they would fix it, but I don’t recall that happening then.

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Lynn Rudock Fibbiani 08/25/2018 at 1:51 PM

WTH IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE

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SC Kent 08/25/2018 at 2:58 PM

Still status quo.

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crd 08/25/2018 at 3:16 PM

I read the entire Times Dispatch story, and the other thing that ticks me off is that apparently Chief Durham pulls all officers from the first precinct down to the Bottom during peak hours. Which means that we have no coverage during anywhere from about 11 p.m. to at least 2 am. – Church Hill, Oakwood, Fulton, whatever. In D.C. he had a whole crew he could assign that way to the nightlife areas, but no budget or manpower for that here, so they get pulled from our areas.

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ein 08/25/2018 at 11:09 PM

This reporter has to have the most annoying speech around

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Mark 08/26/2018 at 10:10 AM

@7 I also read the full article and nothing you said is mentioned. Stop whinning

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Eric S. Huffstutler 08/26/2018 at 10:18 AM

@7crd..

First off, this is a sad situation and one that will start affecting businesses in the Bottom due to fear. Something needs to be done but pulling the First Precinct is not the answer.

I am CERT certified and one of our visitors was from RPD, who spoke of how short staffed they were years ago and apparently, still so. That they only had a couple officers to patrol a huge area that stretched from the Boulevard to Church Hill. Really makes one feel safe and raises a bigger question, WHY?

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Jessica Jones 08/27/2018 at 11:00 AM

Chris Custer Jax, Richmond, doesn’t matter where we are 🙁

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Chris Custer 08/27/2018 at 11:10 AM

This is all just ridiculous

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L 08/27/2018 at 1:20 PM

I always assumed this was a vape shop/head shop/hookah bar of some sort. Their Yelp reviews/page was weirdly entertaining.

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Dubois2 08/28/2018 at 3:56 AM

@9, your parenting style is a thing of beauty sir, a thing of beauty.
That aside, I might add that in the search for truth, one might wish to read more than just the one rtd article…

I believe you may find most of @7’s points in the article linked below.
@7, thank you for a reasoned contribution to the conversation.
My personal 2 cents is that if a business develops a history of violent crime on premises, it doesn’t need to be selling alcohol. Part of my reason for that is that police resources are limited and there’s a lot of work to be done. Clubs need to handle their business or get shut down.

https://www.richmond.com/news/local/city-of-richmond/richmond-police-to-adjust-crime-fighting-strategy-in-shockoe-bottom/article_12582076-e84c-57ff-b4b2-9fe040efea5f.html

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Bill Hartsock 08/28/2018 at 8:13 PM

@9 I read the same article and it stated very clearly that our Chief does pull all available officers from the 1st precinct into the Bottom on Saturday night. Why don’t you read it again. Good show, Dubois2, you are spot on!

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