North Richmond drive-by shooting kills one, ends peaceful streak
on November 16, 2011
[Clarification: The shooting described in this story took place in unincorporated North Richmond, which is under the jurisdiction of the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department and not the Richmond Police Department. Both areas have had a lull in gun violence in the past few months; prior to Tuesday’s the last fatal shooting in North Richmond was on July 3, and there has not been a gun-related homicide in the city since Aug. 26.]
A drive-by shooting on Monday night in the unincorporated part of North Richmond broke an 80-day spell without gun murders in the city of Richmond and its unincorporated neighbor.
Raymone Boyd, an 18-year-old Oakland resident, was gunned down and killed around 9 p.m. at West Ruby Avenue and Second Street. A nearby woman was also shot and was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
After a flurry of gun violence, murders and gang retaliation over the summer, the streets had been unusually quiet for months.
(graph by: Lexi Pandell)
The last fatal shooting occurred on Aug. 26 when a 67-year-old Fijian woman was killed during a home break-in. On Sept. 20, Jensy Romero was murdered in Angie’s Bakery and Restaurant, the result of a domestic dispute that did not involve a gun.
Were the last few months just a lucky spell or was something changing in Richmond?
Richmond Police Dept. Captain Mark Gagan said the ebb in violence might be attributed to a task force initiated in July between the Richmond and Contra Costa County Sherriff’s departments to provide increased law enforcement in North Richmond.
“Several non-profits and [the Office of Neighborhood Safety] have also been focusing their efforts on the young men that are involved in this type of violence,” he said.
RPD Detective Nicole Abetkov said there are a variety of factors responsible for the decrease in fatal shootings, including that a number of repeat violent offenders are currently in custody.
“You can’t really say it’s one faction,” she said. “It’s a collective effort between us, the community and groups like ONS.”
But this week’s drive-by could have a huge impact on street violence in Richmond.
“Earlier this summer, we saw a direct correlation with shootings in North Richmond and shootings in [the city of] Richmond,” Gagan said.
Shootings in Richmond follow a reoccurring trend — one incident of gun violence precedes a storm of retaliation, before things settle once again.
The RPD is working with the Office of Neighborhood Safety, the Contra Costa County Sherriff’s office and the District Attorney to find an effective strategy to reduce the likelihood of retaliation, Gagan said. One solution has been deploying additional RPD officers in Central Richmond.
“We have our detectives talk about who was targeted and how the shooting went down,” he said. “And we also have officers use a high visibility patrol style in areas where we can anticipate retaliatory shootings.”
Of the 25 homicides in the city of Richmond this year, nearly all were by guns and, excluding the home break-in, all of the victims were black or Latino. Murders in unincorporated North Richmond are not calculated into the city total.
5 Comments
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This photo and “fall homicide” data are RPD related. The homicide that just took place was in Unincorporated North Richmond. We are, of course, concerned and saddened by this, but why not use a photo, data, and quotes from the Sheriff’s Dept.?
Thank you for your comment.
We changed some of the story accordingly, including the lede photo and an editor’s note at the top of the text. We hope this gives readers a better understanding of the story and its context.
Unfortunately, a representative from the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Dept. could not be reached before the story was published online.
Thanks for being so responsive!
Is the media attempting to cover up for the city and unincorporated North Richmond? This article is great, but provides a false sense that everything has been okay in Richmond and North Richmond. It has not been quiet as this article will like the citizens to believe. There have been numerous shootings where an actual person was struck. There has been even more shots incidents in both areas where a group of individuals were shot at or had a car fired upon(Almost every day there is a shot spotter activation with multiple gun shots). I am a huge fan or Richmond Confidential and prefer this news site over the major corporations owned sites. But after this article I am starting to question the things that are being reported. I am a retired Police Officer out of a neighboring city, and it disgusts me that just because no one was killed it gets reported the streets have been unusually quiet for months. If you’re going to post an article like this please be up-front with the citizens of this city. Richmond’s Police Chief who also commented on this story is a great person and I admire what he has done with that department. But please don’t hide other facts- this article is not yet complete unless the journalist tallies in every shooting that has happen during this “80 day dry spell”. I am not trying to bash no one here and it’s obvious that this article is only about “Homicides” but there are families that still have to walk the streets and this article will only lead them to believe that nothing has been going on at all.
This is crazy not only are the streets divided with narf souf central the law is to incorporated unincorporated that shit is all stupid cuz when someone gets shots killed stabbed etc. in Richmond it happened in Richmond no matter where it happened at. So y r folks so butt-hurt about “city lines” and shit just dumb we’re dying out here incase you didn’t notice.