Safety
Frazier, a Richmond High School student and basketball player, was killed last Friday in a drive-by shooting outside his family’s home in North Richmond. As the outpouring of grief showed, Frazier’s death touched the community deeply. It also came as part of a streak of gun violence in the city.
Three minutes past midnight, Eduardo Martinez walks out of the Richmond Progressive Alliance office. He turns around and stares back in. Still no final result. He waves goodnight to his supporters. It’s Martinez’s third time running for the Richmond City Council.
Rodney Allen Frazier loved motorbikes. He rode his favorite dirt bike home Friday night. He parked outside of the metal gate beside the curb. His aunt left the porch light on for him. It was well before his 10 p.m. curfew.
A wave of gun violence in Richmond and North Richmond killed two people – including a 16-year-old boy – and left seven others injured in shootings spread across six different locations.
Violence marred Election Day in Richmond as four teens were shot in close proximity to one another on Tuesday night. Police say the shootings may be related.
Just before Thanksgiving last year, a UPS Store employee turned over a box containing about 5 lbs. of marijuana to Richmond police officer Joe Avila. But the marijuana he carried from the shop that afternoon was never booked into evidence at the precinct. According to a search warrant issued by the Contra Costa Superior Court in September, the drugs didn’t make it to the Richmond Police Department’s property vault, but ended up at Avila’s home in Oakley, 44 miles away.
A Richmond Police Department detective shot and wounded a man suspected of attempted burglary Thursday afternoon in the Pacific East Mall parking lot. The man was transported to the hospital with serious injuries but is expected to live, police said.
Richmond homicides have plummeted almost 70 percent over the last decade, and recent police data shows that the downward trend continues, with 12 homicides this year, the lowest in over three decades. Police and city officials credit community cooperation and outreach programs designed to help likely offenders.
Proposition 47, also known as the “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act,” would downgrade six felony crimes, drug possession, grand theft, shoplifting, check forgery, receiving stolen property and writing bad checks.