North Richmond
Marquis Hamilton was a 20-year-old father of two. On Nov. 25, he became the fifth young adult homicide victim in the tiny neighborhood of North Richmond this year. Before that, a RichmondConfidential.org reporter got to know him a bit, and wants you to know him too.
Mourners and clergy remembered Hamilton, 20, as a fun-loving prankster who snatched the bed covers off his seven brothers and five sisters and borrowed friends’ bicycles without their knowledge – only to return them with a laugh.
Over the last century, as industry grew and the population exploded in Richmond, conflicts between construction and restoration have been inevitable. Development and the natural landscape all over Richmond have been at odds.
Friday’s ceremony to remember the victims of homicide in Richmond has become an annual exercise, as McLaughlin uses her monthly meet-the-mayor meetings every December as a solemn occasion to reflect on the lives lost to violence in the city.
Marquis Hamilton was smiling when he coaxed a store cashier into giving him a cigarette before wandering back to the street corner a few ticks past 8 p.m. on Friday night. Moments later, after an exchange of rapid gunfire at the corner of Market Avenue and Fifth Street, Hamilton was back.
Editor’s note: This report was produced by youth reporters at RichmondPulse.org, and is the second part in our two-part series.
In his songs and videos, he is “Macho,” the North Richmond everyman who sneers at his harrowing surroundings through jaundiced eyes. But despite the overt bravado and taunts toward rivals, the real Crummie is hopeful, witty, and funny, like an overgrown kid calloused by a life suffused in tragedy.
When Luz Gomez, the deputy chief of staff for County Supervisor John Gioia, tried to establish a small deli on a corner in North Richmond, even with help from the County, had to overcome more zoning code, development agency and operator obstacles then she anticipated. Though she says that she feels close to opening the neighborhood’s only restaurant, it has been a battle that has lasted years. “I can’t tell you the kinds of barriers we have encountered along this…
The gunshot detection and location system is an invaluable investigative and response tool, police leaders say, but it has not been credited with nabbing any homicide suspects. Still, reduced costs and technological advances mean that the system is likely to be a long-term feature in Richmond.