Safety
On Friday evening, 13 Richmond residents gathered at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in North Richmond to spread the word about life without bullets. Armed with purple fliers, they exited the small church with a gentle gait and marched two-by-two towards the Las Deltas Housing Project, one of the city’s hot spots for gun violence. The purpose of the walk, also known as Richmond Ceasefire/Lifelines to Healing, was to meet people hanging out on their stoops and talk about the…
Orlando Lamar Yancy made people smile. His friends and family told stories of how Yancy, known in his North Richmond neighborhood as “Rusty” or “Bucket,” would crack jokes on the basketball court—and just about anywhere else. But that all ended on May 14, when Yancy, 22, was shot multiple times as he walked in front of the Senior Center at the corner of Fifth Street and Silver Avenue. Yancy, a lifelong North Richmond resident, was pronounced dead at the scene….
A 17-year-old Richmond resident was sentenced Friday to 50 years to life in prison for the murder of Gene Deshawn Grisby-Bell, a 16-year-old El Cerrito High School student athlete. Tyris Franklin was convicted in April in Contra Costa County Superior Court of first degree murder for shooting Grisby-Bell in front of his grandmother’s Crescent Park apartment unit on January 10, 2010. Franklin, who was 16 at the time of the murder, did not dispute that he fired the fatal shots….
A 30-acre area of unincorporated North Richmond is not eligible for a casino, representatives from the U.S. Department of the Interior announced today. The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians had sought to build a large casino on a 30-acre slice of land in North Richmond near Parr Boulevard on the Richmond Parkway. But according to a department press release, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Donald “Del” Laverdure determined that the tribe’s application does not qualify for gaming because the…
About 50 people, including more than a dozen influential African American clergy members, two councilmen and Police Chief Chris Magnus gathered for breakfast Saturday at Greater El Bethel Baptist Church in Parchester Village. Like they do on a Saturday every month, the religious and civic leaders discussed issues facing Richmond, including health, politics and public safety. Key on this Saturday was discussion of Richmond Ceasefire/Lifelines to Healing, a community-driven collaboration with law enforcement to reduce gun violence through a multifaceted…
Poetry comes from the heart, and whether that heart is imprisoned by the mind or cold steely bars, what’s scribbled down on paper can make life-changing differences. That’s the message 19 young Richmond poets spoke about at the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts Sunday afternoon.
More than 120 people crowded into the parking lot of the Neighborhood House of North Richmond around noon Friday for music and food. They also learned more about the Men and Women of Purpose, the new community-based nonprofit a that offers programs aimed at reducing violence, recidivism, homelessness, drug abuse and chronic unemployment. “The turnout, the support, the momentum we’re building with our work—it’s all just amazing,” said MWP’s founder and program director Antwon Cloird. The Men and Women of…
A flare up of deadly shootings in Richmond and unincorporated North Richmond has police and anti-violence workers mobilized in an effort to quell further violence. A version of this article appeared first in the Contra Costa Times. On Monday morning, 22-year-old Orlando Yancy was killed in a drive-by in unincorporated North Richmond, the second homicide in that area this year. Two days later, 27-year-old Donald Washington died after being shot at least five times as he sat in his car…
Joe “Fatter” Blacknell III was sentenced to life in prison plus more than 200 years without possibility of parole for the March 2009 murder of an up-and-coming East Bay rap artist and a September 2009 shooting and carjacking spree in Richmond and Oakland. Blacknell, now 21, was arrested after a brief foot pursuit with Richmond Police at the tail-end of the September 2009 crime spree. He was 18 at the time, and police and District Attorney Office officials say he…