ROANOKE, Va. – Police responded to reports of a shooting on King George Avenue SW at about 9 a.m. Sunday.
When they arrived, they found a man in a car with a fatal gunshot wound.
This is the fifth shooting this week alone, and one local activist is saying it’s time to take action.
In 2004, Rita Joyce experienced what she says is a mother’s nightmare, when she lost her son to gun violence.
Now 19 years later, she says we’re seeing more violence than ever.
“That’s somebody’s child. I don’t care how old they are; it’s somebody’s child. So, I’m heartbroken right now. I’m just so broken because I know what the family is having to go through,” Joyce said.
Roanoke saw five shootings in the span of seven days, three of which were deadly.
Joyce is the founder of FEDUP, a gun violence activist group in Roanoke, and works with the families of the victims.
“When you hear another mother say, ‘Rita, if he owed money or whatever I could have paid it. They didn’t have to do my son like that.’ That is very crushing for me. And having to hear another mother feel that pain. She knew she could call me because she knew I’d been through it,” Joyce said.
Joyce says it’s time to confront gun manufacturers with lawmakers.
“We’ve gotta hit them in the pocket. We’ve gotta say if you’re gonna allow our young kids to be able to order guns online and to put them in possession where they can use them to take a life,” she said.
She says the latest shootings alone show something needs to change.
“We are not as a society looking at gun violence as a pandemic. Why? Why? Tell me why? Because of the society of people it’s affecting? Is that why?” Joyce said.
Joyce believes it will take the whole city to make a change.
“It’s gonna take all of us to say, ‘Let’s break the cycle.’ If you see someone hurting, let’s talk to them. But we have to be better about seeking out and figuring out why is this continuing to happen,” she said.
In all five shootings this week, there have been no suspects identified or arrested.
