An instructional assistant at Orange Elementary School found the gun on Monday afternoon while helping a child who arrived late take items out of their bookbag, Orange County Sheriff Jason C. Smith said in a statement posted on social media. The assistant notified administration and the school resource officer and the gun was removed from the school, Smith said.

It was determined that the 6-year-old brought the loaded Heritage Rough Rider single-action, .22-caliber “Cowboy style” revolver to school, but there’s no indication that the child intended to use the firearm, he said. No arrests have been announced in the case and Smith said the investigation was ongoing.

“This situation is very unfortunate and heartbreaking to this community,” Smith said. “We will get through this together. Situations like these remind us of how fortunate and thankful we are that nothing serious happened. Show your children lots of love and hold them tight!”

In January 2023, a 6-year-old student brought a handgun to school that he used to shoot and critically wound his first grade teacher as she taught class in Newport News.

Police responded at about 7 a.m. to the Cottage Grove Apartments, off Jefferson Avenue south of Briarfield Road, following an alert from ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system.

Police found the teen lying on the ground in the 700 block of Gloucester Drive, inside the complex. He died at the hospital a short time later.

“An officer tried to save that young man’s life,” Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said, choking up briefly as he described the rescue attempt that he said he viewed on video footage.

Drew began a news conference at police headquarters Tuesday morning by saying he was “frustrated that we’re having this conversation.”

Any loss of life is a tragedy, he said, “but when we start talking about youth and teenagers, we’re in another conversation.”

Drew said he wanted to clear up rumors that that the killing stemmed from a dispute inside a school that then “spilled over into the community.”

“We’re not tying this to an incident or a situation that has happened inside or at the schools,” he said.

Still, Drew said he wouldn’t rule out that the shooting was connected to the slaying of the 15-year-old Menchville High School student who was shot last week while waiting for the school bus on 16th Street and Garden Drive at Stuart Gardens.

“We’re two or three hours in,” Drew said, saying detectives are still tracking down leads and making such a connection between the cases would be “premature.”

The shooter in Tuesday’s killing is still at large. No arrests have been made in either case, and police have not released motives in either one.

This week’s slaying at Cottage Grove, he said, did not take place at a bus stop, and it was not immediately clear whether the slain teen was on his way to school when he was killed. High schools in Newport News begin at 7:10 a.m. daily, or about 10 minutes after Tuesday’s shooting.

Drew declined to say which high school the 17-year-old attended, though both the chief and Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones visited Heritage High School — less than half a mile from the shooting site — shortly after the slaying.

Later, Drew predicted that both of the killings would be solved. “We have good information coming in,” he said. “People are going to be held accountable.”

Jones said at the news conference that the shootings in both cases appear to have stemmed from particular issues between the young people.

“These appear to be targeted,” he said. “These are not random acts of violence.”

Still, Jones said, “This is unacceptable in the city of Newport News, and this has to stop.”

“I’m tired of getting the phone calls in the morning,” the mayor added. “I’m tired of going down to the scene. This is on parents. This is on families. There is no excuse for not knowing what your child has in their bedroom. If someone lives in your house, you should know exactly what they’re doing.”

Jones went to the crime scene Tuesday morning with Newport News City Council member John Eley, who represents the South District.

He and Drew then visited Heritage.

“The call to action that I have for you is, if you see something, please let us know,” Jones said at the news conference. “We have individuals that are trying to go to school. We have an amazing community, (and) I refuse to let these acts of violence characterize our city in a negative light. This is a great place to live, to work and to raise your family, and this has to stop.”

Drew said it struck him that parents at Heritage felt the need to remove their children from school on Tuesday.

“I saw kids’ faces in that hallway, and I saw parents taking their kids out of school, and that bothers me,” Drew said. “I want the students that are going to school here … to know that they’re safe being in our schools, and they’re going to be safe in these communities, and these acts aren’t going to be tolerated.”

Newport News Public Schools released a statement shortly before the press conference.

“While this undoubtedly will impact our community, our school staff remains diligent in ensuring the well-being of our students,” the statement reads. “Student support specialists and counselors are available to talk with students and families at all schools who may need support as they hear and learn more about these types of violent events in our community and across the country.”

Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com

Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com

Bobby Dale Francisco, 30, was arrested Friday and charged with threatening bodily harm in writing, according to a Virginia Beach police spokesman. The crime is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $2,500 fine.

Francisco was taken into custody at his home in South Mills, North Carolina, by a Currituck County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team, according to a post on the office’s Facebook page. He’s being held on a $1 million secured bond until he can be extradited to Virginia, the post said.

St. John the Apostle Catholic School, which serves students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, received the threat Wednesday and contacted police, according to notices sent to parents. In one notice, Superintendent of Catholic Schools Michael Riley said the threat had been made “in response to news coverage” related to a recent student disciplinary decision made by the school.

The Virginian-Pilot and other local media outlets reported last week about the school’s decision to suspend a sixth-grade student after he told the principal a classmate had shown him a bullet during class. While the boy, 11, was told he did the right thing by reporting the incident, he also was informed that he would be punished for not reporting it immediately, according to his mother, Rachel Wigand.

Wigand contacted attorney Tim Anderson in an effort to get the decision reversed, but the school refused.

After receiving the threat, school officials decided to cancel classes Thursday, then extended the closure to Friday while police continued to investigate.

The school sent another notice late Friday announcing that an arrest had been made, and that classes would resume Monday. The Virginian-Pilot reached out to Virginia Beach police for details that day, but a spokesperson didn’t provide the information until Monday.

“Public opinion overwhelmingly supports my client that St. John’s wrongfully suspended her son,” Anderson said Friday before the arrest had been announced. “They are in the hot seat for making a dumb decision and now want the parents of the school to be mad at my client because school is shut down.”

Riley, however, wrote to parents that school officials must take such threats seriously.

“This has been a trying week for so many in our school community, and the disruption of our school closure may only deepen the sense of unease,” he wrote in Friday’s letter.

“We also know that, for some families, the school’s recent disciplinary decision may call into question the strength of our security policies. Let me be clear — our culture of safety requires that students and adults alike report potential threats as quickly as they are made aware of them; in a real emergency, gaps in reporting time may have major consequences for school safety … As with any disciplinary matter, we treat this as an opportunity to learn and move forward.”

Riley went on to caution parents against discussing student disciplinary decisions with news reporters.

“This week’s past events also show that media coverage of private disciplinary matters can invite unwanted attention from persons outside our school community,” he wrote. “We ask for caution and good judgment before taking private matters into the public arena as it can result in unintended consequences that threaten the safety of the school.”

Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com

A two-count criminal information was filed Sept. 10 in U.S. District Court in Norfolk against Matthew Taylor Morris, court records show. The records also indicate the 38-year-old attorney plans to enter a guilty plea in the case on Sept. 24.

Morris resigned from his job as an assistant commonwealth’s attorney Sept. 6, four days before the charges were filed, according to a spokeswoman for the office. He was hired in August 2022, the spokeswoman said. She declined to comment further.

Morris’ attorney James Broccoletti confirmed that Morris plans to plead guilty later this month, but also declined to comment further.

Morris is accused of working with at least three others to possess and distribute large amounts of marijuana, according to the complaint. The crimes are alleged to have occurred between March 2021 and May 2022, which was before Morris began his job with the prosecutor’s office.

The complaint didn’t specify how much marijuana was involved, but indicated it was less than 50 kilograms. The document also stated that Morris and alleged co-conspirators Nicholas Capehart, Donald Rogers and Jeffrey Sines “derived substantial gross proceeds” from the illegal dealings.

The marijuana was stored at locations across Hampton Roads, including a law office Morris maintained before becoming a prosecutor, according to the complaint. The group used encrypted cellphone messaging applications to avoid detection, the document said.

Morris’ legal troubles with the Virginia State Bar and local judges date back to at least early 2022. Over a period of several months that year, his law license was suspended three times, he was caught with a gun in his briefcase at the Virginia Beach courthouse on two separate occasions, was found in civil contempt three times by judges in the region, and was barred from handling criminal cases in Virginia Beach Circuit Court.

Morris’ first known disciplinary incident occurred in March 2022, when he was ordered to appear at a show cause hearing in Virginia Beach Circuit Court for the two incidents in which courthouse security officers found a gun in his briefcase.

Morris told Judge Les Lilley he’d forgotten the gun was there when he went through the building’s metal detectors. Lilley found him in civil contempt, but court documents didn’t indicate whether a punishment was issued.

That same month, the Virginia State Bar suspended his law license for a week for failing to comply with a legal education requirement. It was suspended again shortly after that for unpaid bar dues.

Also in March 2022, Virginia Beach Circuit Judge Stephen Mahan banned Morris from representing clients in criminal cases there after he showed up hours late to a court hearing and made troubling statements about the reason for his tardiness and mistakes he’d made in his client’s case.

In August 2022, the bar suspended his law license again — that time for six months — for a series of threatening texts he was accused of sending to a former client. According to the bar, Morris suspected the man had filed a complaint against him. He was hired by Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Morales that same month.

In October of that year, Morris pleaded guilty to a civil contempt charge in Northampton Circuit Court and was fined $250, according to the Shore Daily News. In that case, he’d failed to show up for a court hearing two months earlier, when he was still working in private practice.

While serving as a Portsmouth prosecutor, Morris continued to handle dozens of cases during a four-week period when his license was suspended, according to the state bar. He told bar officials he wasn’t aware of the suspension.

In March 2023 — when the bar was considering what action to take against Morris for the threatening texts — Morales submitted a character reference letter in which she described him as knowledgeable, professional and hard-working. She also wrote that she “couldn’t be more pleased” with her decision to hire him.

Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com

The 26-year-old had married her partner, Haley Crabtree Johnson, in December, and they planned to soon start a family.

After several years in Blacksburg, the Hampton natives decided to return to the Peninsula to be closer to their own families as they began their own. They were set to close on a new home in Newport News in June.

After spending all day packing in Blacksburg on May 26, the Johnsons and several relatives ran a four-vehicle caravan back to Hampton Roads that Memorial Day weekend.

“We were all very excited for them to start their own family,” said Morgan’s mother, Rose Johnson Paul, 59, of Hampton. “I talked to Morgan all throughout the day, not knowing that would be the last time I ever talked to my daughter.”

About 20 minutes from home, Morgan’s 1998 Chevy Silverado pickup was struck from behind by a 2010 Volvo SUV on Interstate 64 near Fort Eustis, in Newport News.

The pickup veered to the right, struck a guardrail and flipped multiple times, landing on its roof. Johnson was wearing a seat belt, but died at the scene.

The Volvo’s driver, Gregory Todd Pugh Jr., 30, was uninjured. The Hampton resident was charged with reckless driving, driving on a suspended license and failing to have insurance.

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Family wants increased charges

Now, Johnson’s relatives want prosecutors to upgrade the misdemeanor reckless driving count to manslaughter. Reckless driving, they contend, amounts to a glorified speeding ticket.

“He killed someone, you know?” said Morgan’s sister, Chelsie Johnson Schrum, 33. “To me it’s black and white. You weren’t supposed to be on the road, and you killed somebody. To me, that’s manslaughter … not a traffic infraction.”

“What I want is accountability,” Morgan’s mother added.

Haley Johnson, 24, said she would be upset if the charges are not upgraded.

“That would be absolutely devastating,” she said, saying keeping the charges as is would make it appear “that they don’t care that a life was lost.”

Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, said that every few years in the Virginia General Assembly, a lawmaker puts in a bill to enhance criminal liability for fatal crashes. That typically follows a wreck in which a lawmaker’s constituent has lost a loved one on the road, he said.

But though several states have increased criminal liability for fatal crashes, Virginia has not.

“I think the reason that it hasn’t really caught on in Virginia is that we typically base the punishment on the level of intentional conduct, not necessarily the outcome,” Surovell said. “People make simple mistakes while driving cars all the time.”

Some cars are safer than others, he said, and whether someone lives or dies can turn on such factors as someone’s physical condition or whether or not they wore a seat belt. A healthy teen, for example, might walk away from a wreck that could kill an older person.

“How fair is it to hold a driver at fault for all the different variables that can cause a death?” Surovell asked.

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Manslaughter vs. Reckless Driving

Involuntary manslaughter in Virginia — a felony punishable by up to 10 years — is typically reserved for crashes involving such behavior as racing, driving at high speeds or driving under the influence. The charge can be “aggravated,” and the sentence doubled, when someone shows a “wanton” and “reckless disregard for human life.”

Reckless driving is a lesser crime, defined as operating a motor vehicle “so as to endanger the life, limb, or property of any person.” It’s a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Standard jail policies, moreover, would cut any resulting jail term in half.

Drivers who cause fatal accidents can also be charged with a rarely used “felony reckless driving” count — but only if their license was already suspended on past moving violations. (That doesn’t apply here, as Pugh’s license was suspended for failing to carry insurance rather than prior driving charges, police have told Johnson’s family).

Pugh could not be reached last week. His attorney, Timothy Clancy, declined to comment — and said his client would have no comment — on the case scheduled for an Oct.22 hearing in Newport News General District Court.

Meantime, Johnson’s family has a Thursday meeting scheduled with Newport News prosecutors where the family plans to press for the upgraded charge.

___

Crash report

The State Police report into the May 26 crash estimates Pugh was driving about 75 mph in a 65 mph zone when he struck Johnson, who was driving her loaded pickup about 55 mph.

Paul said investigators weren’t able to salvage black boxes from the vehicles to “confirm the speeds,” but she said police and prosecutors were still considering ways to determine whether those speed estimates are accurate.

Neither drugs nor alcohol were factors in the crash, the State Police report said. A trooper told Johnson’s family that there were no indicators at the scene — such as slurred speech, open containers or the smell of alcohol — to warrant a sobriety or breath test.

Johnson’s family contends sobriety tests should be mandated in all fatal wrecks, given that a driver’s impairment could go undetected by sight and smell.

But Surovell said it’s unconstitutional to require a sobriety check without probable cause — and that a fatal crash alone does not constitute such cause. Though police can ask someone to voluntarily submit to a sobriety test, he said, officers typically don’t request that without evidence of alcohol or drug use.

The State Police report also has boxes checked indicating that “driver distraction” — such as from a cell phone — was not a factor in the crash, but Johnson’s family said police told them that whether or not Pugh was using his cell phone at the time is still under investigation.

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‘Loved her family hard’

Morgan Johnson grew up in Hampton, with a fraternal twin sister, an older sister and an older brother.

She played softball “her whole life,” including two years at Kecoughtan High School. When she didn’t make the team her sophomore year, she went to the coach to say she’d “love to be part of the team somehow,” Haley said. She ended up becoming the team manager.

“If Morgan hadn’t gone and reached out to the coach, we probably would have never met,” Haley said. The two became best friends first and then began dating while still at Kecoughtan.

Morgan also served as Kecoughtan’s “Warrior” mascot for three years, and worked as a trainer at a local YMCA and on the staff of the County Grill & Smokehouse and Harpoon Larry’s.

After Haley went to Virginia Tech for college, Morgan moved to Blacksburg in 2020.

While there, she got certifications in photography, welding and advanced welding. The couple launched a photography business, taking senior pictures for students at Tech and Radford University. Morgan was also a certified personal trainer, rescued animals, and enjoyed fishing, traveling and her Pittsburgh Steelers.

“Morgan worked hard, played hard, and loved her family hard,” Paul said, with the family saying she was outgoing and caring to her many friends.

Haley said Morgan “was meant to be a mother,” and began talking several years ago about wanting a family. After getting married late last year, the couple pegged August as “baby month,” to start planning an in vitro pregnancy in which Haley would carry the baby to term.

“She was excited,” Haley said.

In fact, having a family was what drew the newlyweds back to the Peninsula. “We had a great group of people in Blacksburg, but it wasn’t our parents, right?” Haley said.

While Haley landed a school teaching job in the Williamsburg public schools, Morgan was set to begin a welding job in June that included working on a race car at Langley Speedway, one of her favorite hangouts.

“It felt like everything was just kind of falling into place, kind of perfectly,” Haley said.

The May accident and past four months provided a dramatic, painful shift. Haley is still reeling from the loss of a woman she’s known about half her young life.

“You can be in the worst mood ever, and she knows how to pick you up,” Haley said of Morgan. “I miss her ability to laugh at everything and to make everybody else laugh.”

Haley said she misses Morgan in the small things, too, like going to the grocery store together.

“She was my confidante, my person,” Haley said. “She knew what I was feeling before I felt it. She knew what I needed at all times.”

Morgan’s sister Chelsie said the most difficult part was telling her three children — aged 3, 6 and 9 — that their aunt had died. Two nieces will serve as flower girls when Morgan’s twin sister, Madison Johnson, gets married next May. During the service, the girls will use flower petals from their Aunt Morgan’s funeral a year earlier.

“Making Morgan a part of the wedding,” Paul said of her daughter. “She’s gonna be with us.”

Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com

Hampton schools saw a significant increase in student absences; officials said 900 more students across the division were absent Thursday than Wednesday. Hampton was one of several districts across the country that had schools on a “hit list” that circulated Wednesday on TikTok.

“While we can’t attribute all of these absences to the social media hoax, we acknowledge that it likely played a role in many of them,” division spokeswoman Kellie Goral said in an email.

On Facebook parent groups and online neighborhood forums, parents shared fears and plans to keep their children home a day or two. Some wondered — as often happens after school-related violence — whether to switch to homeschooling.

In Newport News, parents reported getting a message from the Warwick High School principal Friday telling them the administration was “notified of some threatening comments and chatter posted on social media referencing several NNPS schools.” The message stated the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services said similar posts were circulating in other parts of the state and nationwide.

The social media frenzy came on the heels of the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old Menchville student in Newport News while he was waiting at a school bus stop early Tuesday. It also closely follows school shootings in Maryland and Georgia the previous week.

Ashley Dale, whose children were home sick for a part of the week but were cleared to return on Friday, said she didn’t feel safe sending them back after receiving a message from Hampton schools about the threats.

“I don’t want them there,” Dale said. “It’s scary for me. They’re safer here.”

Dale said this isn’t the first time she’s been concerned about how safe her kids are at school. Last year, she kept her oldest daughter, Madison Peach, then a freshman at Bethel High School, home for several days after a student attacked another with a boxcutter. A few years prior, when a couple of her children were in elementary school, their school called to say that a bullet had been found on the bus they were riding.

“So I said, ‘No more bus.’ ”

But Dale feels stuck. She knows she can’t keep her children home indefinitely and is unable to homeschool. She wishes there were more virtual choices.

“Really, there are no options.”

Madison, 15, said the violence and the messages she’s seen circulating made her worry. Though she usually doesn’t attend football games, her friends at Bethel who do were relieved when the school’s game against Menchville was postponed.

She said the shootings at the schools in Georgia and Maryland have particularly rattled her.

“It’s scary because you don’t know what school is next or who is planning on bringing a gun.”

Though Bethel has a weapons detection system like other Hampton and Newport News schools, Madison said searches are not always conducted when someone sets them off. She worries something could slip in.

A Hampton official said division officials will investigate the complaint and address the issue if necessary.

Despite her anxiety, Madison does not want to learn remotely. She’s able to focus better while at school.

“I think I would do it if it got to a certain point,” she said.

Anxiety after a school or school-connected shooting is not uncommon.

“That’s completely understandable,” said Rachel Stewart, a licensed professional counselor with Thriveworks in Virginia Beach.

Stewart, who works with children, teens and adults, said the Newport News shooting already has come up in some of her client sessions. She said social media is also exacerbating a situation where people’s anxiety feeds off each other.

“When a kid sees their parents being scared or concerned, they’re going to feel the same way, right? When they see other kids being scared or concerned, they’re going to feel the same way,” she said.

This can keep children and teens in a state of anxiety for a longer time, she said.

Even before the most recent violence, Stewart said the fear of a school shooting has been one of the biggest issues for children she works with who are experiencing school-related anxiety.

Data from 2018 Pew Research Center surveys showed that a majority of teenagers — 57% — were worried about a shooting at their school. More than 60% of parents of teenagers surveyed were at least somewhat worried about the possibility.

Mental health professionals have been sounding the alarm about the deterioration of youth mental health for years. Many say the issue was further exacerbated by the pandemic. Schools are seeing record absences, many of them fueled by anxiety and other mental health challenges.

A 2022 policy brief published in the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research cites numerous studies that have found that students exposed to school shootings experience negative impacts on their mental health, as well as their educational and economic trajectories. This includes a higher rate of antidepressant use, lower test scores, increased absenteeism and a higher likelihood of dropping out.

Though the Newport News shooting on Tuesday did not happen at a school, it meets the definition of a “school-associated violent death,” as defined by the School-Associated Violent Death Surveillance System, which includes homicides where the victim was on the way to or from school.

According to the policy brief, school shootings can impact students more directly than other gun violence because of students’ connections to the victims as well as “the loss of trust in their schools’ ability to keep them safe.”

The brief also notes that intensive media coverage of school shootings also likely puts many American students on edge.

Social media hoaxes also cause significant disruptions. A series of bomb threats disrupted schools in numerous Hampton Roads divisions two years ago, in some cases causing students to be sent home early.

“These incidents can cause unnecessary fear and anxiety among students, staff and families,” Goral said. She added that the hoaxes also strain school and police resources, as they ramp up security, investigate threats and deploy counselors and social workers to support students.

A spokesman for the state Department of Education said on Friday that officials are working with school divisions to explore possible resolutions for threats made over social media. Many of these threats may not be originating from within the state, or even the country, he said.

Nour Habib, nour.habib@virginiamedia.com

Six months after the Feb. 13 shooting that sent at least 26 rounds through the wall of his Virginia Beach townhouse, Landyn sat propped up on a couch still pocked with bullet holes and watched videos of himself posted last fall to his YouTube channel. His dad, Steven Davis, scooped a handful of popcorn into his son’s mouth as the boy in the videos windmilled his arms, tried dance moves and offered his pipe cleaner creations for sale.

The self-acknowledged baby of the family laughed and flashed his trademark smile that lights up brighter than the neon colors of his favorite video games.

But the emotion changed when the shooting came up. He described the feeling, with his mother’s permission for the language, as “pissed off.”

“I’m angry at the people who shoot,” he said haltingly, the words hard-won through months of physical therapy. “Don’t buy guns. Don’t sell guns.”

Last year, 21 children and adolescents died as a result of gunshot wounds in Hampton Roads, making up more than a third of the state’s child deaths due to gun violence, according to preliminary data from the Virginia Department of Health. Almost four times that number, 82, were treated for firearm injuries in Hampton Roads emergency departments.

In June, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared firearm violence to be a public health crisis, joining the American Academy of Pediatrics and other advocates who have considered it an epidemic for well over a decade. This push comes nearly 30 years after the 1996 Dickey Amendment froze any government funding for research into gun violence, six years after Congress allowed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to fund research as long as it did not advocate for gun control and four years after it became the leading cause of death for children in Virginia and nationally.

From June to August, The Virginian-Pilot followed Landyn and his family at community events, through grueling rehabilitation appointments and at home for an in-depth look at what it’s like for a child to live through gun violence.

___

‘We all looked’

The family’s front porch lightbulb camera captured the moments that changed their lives forever.

Landyn’s parents had left on a chilly, dark Tuesday evening with his 13-year-old brother, Breland Barksdale, for a wrestling team meeting. Landyn was supposed to go, but he’d been begging to play video games. Sister Briyah Barksdale, 15, was staying home, so his parents agreed to let him use the computer in their room on the second floor at the front of the house.

Just after 6 p.m., Briyah was sitting outside with her friends, listening to music. Video footage showed teenagers swaying and singing along before they suddenly looked around, then relaxed.

“I took off the headphones,” she said, “and then we heard the pop, and we all looked.”

It seemed like the sound had come from far away, so they weren’t worried — at first.

“The next thing you know, it was like you kind of saw the shots coming, but you really heard them too,” she said. “It’s like they whistle when they go by. So like, you could tell that the house was getting hit. We were getting hit.”

One bullet whizzed past her head. Another grazed her leg.

On video, the kids whirled away, then dropped out of sight as dozens of flashes erupted from the darkness. They ducked inside the house, and Briyah ran upstairs to check on Landyn.

“I didn’t see him in the chair. So I’m like, ‘Did he run in the bathroom?’ But then I didn’t know if they were going to start hitting at the house again, so I sort of army crawled on the floor,” she said.

That’s when she saw her brother lying still.

Landyn doesn’t like to talk about the shooting. He remembers it and its aftermath, although he seems to have forgotten some things over time and recalled others, said his mom, Emily Rigsby.

Something hit the computer screen, and as he lifted his headphones and turned to see what was going on, he was struck and collapsed to the floor, Rigsby said he later told her. A bullet had rammed through his skull, just behind his left ear.

Dr. Adam Conley, the pediatric neurosurgeon who operated on Landyn that night at Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters in Norfolk, said he has treated 40 to 50 children for gunshot wounds in his roughly 13-year career.

“The mortality of the gun violence is much higher,” Conley said. “We may see it less often, but when we do, the injuries uniformly are much more severe and life-altering — or life-ending.”

___

Grueling recovery and family stress

In Landyn’s case, he had an entry but not an exit wound, which is somewhat uncommon because usually the force of the bullet has enough energy to go through, Conley said. The bullet went through the protective membrane, called the dura, causing significant damage to the left side of Landyn’s brain, but then came to rest on the right side without nearly as much injury.

Objects in the brain don’t typically migrate to new locations, and removing the bullet, which was sterile due to the friction generated by the gunshot, would have destroyed healthy tissue.

“Quite honestly, that’s the last thing in the world I want to do, is to inflict any more brain damage on him,” Conley said. “You try to get a seal on the brain again and that allows the healing process to start.”

The hours immediately after the shooting are a blur for Landyn’s family. Rigsby said she didn’t sleep for the next four days while detectives repeatedly interviewed her, Briyah, and other family members. She recalled noticing mud on her husband’s shoes after he stopped by their house, only to realize it was their son’s blood.

“I’m just grateful he’s still here,” his mom said. “They didn’t think he was going to make it the first 96 hours. And once it got closer to the 96 hours, your heart starts pumping, because you’re like, oh my gosh, this is Day 3. Tomorrow’s Day 4. Is he going to make it?”

“You’re just worried to death,” she continued. “And they’re like, ‘If he does make it, he won’t be able to do anything.’ And I told them, ‘I don’t care. As long as I’ve got him, I would take him any way I could get him.’”

Landyn was released from the hospital after 91 days, just before his ninth birthday in May. He’s defied the odds, but every tiny improvement comes at a cost.

“Younger children have an increased potential for neurological recovery,” Conley said. “But you have the physical damage to the brain and how that relates to the immediate and long-lasting physical therapy. Then, of course, you have the emotional component. You have the stress it puts on the family.”

On a Monday morning not long after the Fourth of July, which left Landyn sleepless and anxious among the jarring noise of fireworks, he prepared for his regular slate of rehab: speech, occupational and physical therapy, four days a week.

At home, before being loaded into his mom’s SUV, he laughed and joked with his brother. He showed off his favorite plush toys, the fancy Lego sets his parents are saving in hopes he can one day assemble them himself, and his cat, Coco — short for Cocomelon — who sleeps by his head every night. But by the time he arrived in the waiting room, his head hung low and his eyes were distant.

For the next four hours, Landyn trained as hard as any athlete. In speech, he practiced controlling his head to swallow safely — one of his most important goals so he can get his feeding tube removed.

In occupational therapy, it took almost 30 minutes to strap Landyn into a functional electrical stimulation therapy bike, a machine that sends small pulses to muscles to improve their function. Then he spent another half-hour straining his arms and legs to improve grip strength, motor control and coordination — the areas most affected by the damage to his brain.

A screen on the bike showed a driving course, similar to a video game. But Landyn rarely looked at it, instead focusing with grim determination on the effort needed for the task.

“Do you remember what you could do when you left the hospital?” occupational therapist Kelly Allen asked Landyn.

“Wave,” he murmured.

“Yeah, I think you could wave,” she said. “What kinds of things can you do with your hands now? You can wave. You can pick things up.”

“Click buttons,” Landyn contributed.

“Oh, like on a game, like on a device? Or a remote, yeah,” she said.

Finally, it was time for physical therapy. After a short break, Kelly Crombie led Landyn through exercises designed to build the muscles he’ll need to sit on his own, stand and eventually walk.

The demanding exercise took its toll, leaving Landyn exhausted. And he would have to do it again the next day because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when someone decided to fire a gun.

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‘So many other Landyns out there’

Landyn isn’t the only child at CHKD recovering from a gunshot wound.

The health system, which provides the region’s only freestanding Level 1 pediatric trauma center, reported treating 22 patients under 18 for gunfire injuries last year. Of the 82 children and adolescents treated for firearm injuries in Hampton Roads emergency departments last year, 25 were under age 15, according to state data.

For many, physical rehab is only the beginning of the arduous journey to recovery, said Kristina Golden, a licensed clinical psychologist with CHKD’s Child Advocacy Center, where Landyn, Briyah and Breland all engage in therapy.

Being injured, suffering a “near miss” or simply witnessing gun violence all qualify as potentially traumatic experiences, she said, that can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder.

“There can be a significant psychological effect,” Golden said.

Symptoms can include difficulty sleeping, hypervigilance, flashbacks, feeling on edge, school absenteeism and risky behavior.

A landmark study published last November in Health Affairs, a health policy research journal, showed that in the year after a gunshot wound, child and adolescent survivors experienced a 117% increase in pain disorders, a 68% increase in psychiatric disorders and a 144% increase in substance use disorders. The study found their health care spending increased by an average of $34,884, with 95% of costs paid by insurers or parents’ employers.

The good news, Golden said, is that studies done on children who have experienced traumatic stress show that with evidence-based interventions, such as trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, they can go on to lead normal lives and remain in remission from their symptoms.

“A lot of these symptoms, we can’t tell by looking at a child,” Golden said. “It’s so important to go to a professional, get that mental health evaluation, just to see how the child is doing because a lot of these things … we wouldn’t know if we don’t ask.”

Survivors aren’t the only casualties, according to the Health Affairs study. Parents of survivors experienced a roughly 30% increase in psychiatric disorders, and routine medical care for mothers and siblings decreased by 5% to 14%, which suggests families’ needs are pushed aside in the wake of a shooting, researchers said.

Helping families meet immediate needs is one of the most important and effective actions taken by a violence intervention program called Safer Futures, which CHKD started three years ago, said Kamron Blue, a medical social worker and the program’s coordinator.

Bags of groceries line a table in the small room on the ground floor of CHKD where Blue meets with families to talk about what kind of support they need to find a new normal, whether that’s going home with food or getting legal help in the aftermath of a shooting.

“I think gun violence is rooted in systemic issues, and poverty is one of those,” Blue said.

People become desperate when jobs are limited and scarce, health care and other services aren’t easily accessible and they struggle to afford housing, he said. Those factors don’t cause gun violence, but they affect people’s ability to take care of themselves and their families — and that contributes to it, Blue said. But the problem isn’t confined to any one type of neighborhood or lifestyle.

“We know that people who live in these marginalized communities are at increased risk,” he said. “But gun violence has happened everywhere. So while it may not happen to them in their neighborhood, I think every parent worries about getting a phone call from their school. Let’s look at Landyn. He was playing video games. And there’s so many other Landyns out there that were just doing kid things.”

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Living a new normal

Rigsby and Davis attended the first hearing in the case against their son’s accused shooters in early August, even though they were alerted it would be continued. They’re determined to show up for every court date. Once the case moves past preliminary stages, Landyn will join them in the courtroom. His parents estimate he could be a teenager before it’s resolved.

“It’s unfair for the people who have to suffer,” said Davis, who holds a concealed carry permit and keeps his firearms locked up. “People don’t think about their actions. They want to be like the gangsters they see in the movies, or their favorite rappers.”

Police have said the violence was gang-related and someone standing outside their home was likely the target. Police told Rigsby that someone who went live on Facebook unintentionally showed their house number in the background, but was already gone by the time the shooters opened fire, she said. A Commonwealth Attorney’s Office spokesperson declined to confirm any details, citing the ongoing investigation.

It’s too easy for people to get their hands on guns, Rigsby said.

“They’re not thinking about the people or the children or families or anybody else that it affects,” Rigsby said.

A 10-year Army veteran, Rigsby thinks the barrage of bullets that invaded both floors of her home shows just how little many perpetrators of gun violence understand about firearms.

“A bullet doesn’t have a gender or an age or a race,” Rigsby said. “You never know where they’re going. You might think that it’s going to the intended target, but that’s not always the case. And it’s turned our lives completely upside down.”

Landyn’s dad returned to work driving trucks full-time in June. He spends weekends building Legos next to his son, an activity he regrets often turning down before the shooting because he was too tired.

“I had all the time in the world before Feb. 13 to build Legos with Landyn,” said Davis, who has also raised Briyah and Breland for the last 12 years along with his oldest, Brielle Davis, 16. “I almost lost that chance.”

He finds himself noticing things they’ve never done and making plans to do them, like watching the sun rise over the beach.

“He was 8 years old,” Davis said. “All that could have been over with.”

Last year, Landyn’s mom took three back-to-school pictures. This year, there was only one.

Breland was the only one who got on the bus this year. An outgoing, charming teen in constant motion, he still faces challenges at school — like the time he told his mom that at first he didn’t hear someone talking to him because he was wearing headphones, and then the kid said that’s how his brother got shot.

Briyah, who hasn’t returned to school since the shooting and participates in an online program, will continue to stay home and help her mom take care of her baby brother.

Instead of starting fourth grade with the classmates who sent him dozens of cards and Lego structures in the spring, Landyn will continue to work on learning to sit, stand and walk again.

While he can’t go back to school yet, one of his favorite teachers gifted him a keyboard and piano lessons at home. Almost 200 days after the shooting, Landyn beamed that trademark smile as his teacher placed his hands on the keys, and he played his first note.

License plate flippers are commonly used for aesthetic purposes at auto shows, where they allow drivers to switch between custom or decorative plates. But across the country, thousands of drivers also flip or cover their license plates to evade detection — whether by law enforcement, toll systems or automated speed cameras.

Texas and Washington explicitly banned the devices in 2013. Nonetheless, it’s generally illegal across the United States to alter or obstruct a license plate, no matter the method.

In Tennessee, a law that went into effect in July bans the purchase, sale, possession of and manufacture of plate flippers. Lawmakers said they worried about drivers trying to evade law enforcement.

“We don’t have any toll roads today, but we do have criminals today,” Tennessee state Republican Rep. Greg Martin, who sponsored the legislation in the House, said in an interview. “This [measure] is to make sure that everyone is playing on the same playing field.”

Under the new law, anyone who purchases a license plate flipper could face up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $500. Those caught manufacturing or selling these devices could face up to 11 months and 29 days in jail, along with a fine of up to $2,500.

The Pennsylvania House passed, with bipartisan support, legislation that would ban license plate flippers and impose a $2,000 penalty on those caught using or selling them. The bill now goes to the Senate.

“With speed cams and red-light cams becoming more and more prevalent around, there are technologies that are coming out for people to evade safety on the roads,” Pennsylvania state Democratic Rep. Pat Gallagher, the bill’s lead sponsor in the House, said in an interview.

Cities take action

Some cities also are looking to crack down on these devices.

In April, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, a Democrat, signed a bill into law banning the purchase, installation, possession of and sale of “manual, electric, or mechanical” license plate flippers, with violations punishable by a $2,000 fine.

“Tag flipping belongs in a James Bond movie, not on our city streets,” Philadelphia Councilmember Mike Driscoll, a Democrat, said in an interview with Stateline. “It’s not just a problem in the city of Philadelphia; this sense of entitlement and lawlessness is going on all over the country.

“Every municipality has got to take these things seriously,” Driscoll said.

In March, New York state and city officials launched a multi-agency task force dedicated to identifying and removing so-called “ghost cars” — vehicles that are untraceable by traffic cameras and toll readers due to their forged or altered license plates — from New York City streets.

In 2022, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, reached an agreement with Amazon to help search for and restrict the sale of smokescreen and tinted license plate covers to customers with a New York state address. This collaboration followed the passage of a city law earlier that year prohibiting the sale of products designed to conceal or obscure vehicle license plates to New York City residents.

Criminal activity and toll revenue

Recent discussions around license plate flippers have largely focused on their role in criminal activity and the loss of revenue from tolls and traffic tickets.

Obstructing license plates is a common violation, with some drivers using plate flippers, duct tape or bogus paper tags to avoid detection. In some cases, the obstruction may be unintentional, such as when bike racks partially block the plate.

Chad Bruckner, a retired police detective who is now the president of the private investigation firm Intercounty Investigations & Solutions, said that while he supports legislation banning tag flippers, it’s important to balance protecting citizens’ rights with providing law enforcement the tools needed to promote public safety.

“If you can’t identify a vehicle, you don’t have the legal tooth or authority to execute a stop or something,” Bruckner said in an interview. “There’s just no law and order. That’s not safe for people.”

License plate flippers are widely accessible online, with devices available for as little as $50 and as much as a few hundred dollars, though most typically sell for around $200.

Other devices, such as license plate covers that obscure letters and numbers from certain angles, are already illegal in most states. These covers, whether clear or tinted, can affect visibility for traffic and tolling cameras.

Most tolling agencies aren’t significantly affected by these violations financially because the majority of drivers comply with the law. But MTA Bridges and Tunnels in New York City, one of the busiest toll agencies in the United States, reported a loss of more than $21 million in 2023 due to obstructed plates, a more than 140% increase from 2020, according to Aaron Donovan, the agency’s deputy communications director.

The agency projects a slightly lower revenue loss of nearly $19 million for 2024, thanks to the new task force dedicated to cracking down on untraceable vehicles. The task force has seized over 2,100 vehicles and made more than 450 arrests since mid-March. Those arrests often reveal that evaders are involved in other criminal activities, such as possessing illegal firearms or driving stolen vehicles, according to MTA Bridges and Tunnels President Catherine Sheridan.

“This is a larger regional issue where these same people who are avoiding tolls are also not paying parking tickets. They’re violating school cameras, speed cameras,” Sheridan said in an interview. “We’re also finding that these folks are committing other crimes in our region.”

The losses represent less than 1% of the agency’s total toll revenue, but they’re still significant, she said, because they reduce the agency’s ability to subsidize mass transit in New York City, which in turn affects residents who rely on public transportation.

“Every dollar we don’t collect is $1 off of that subsidy,” Sheridan said. “This is about everyone paying their fair share.”

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages several bridges and tunnels connecting the two states and is part of the multi-agency task force dedicated to cracking down on untraceable vehicles, lost about $40 million in toll revenue from obscured and missing plates in 2022, according to Lenis Valens, a public information officer with the agency.

In that same year, the agency issued more than 2,300 summonses for obstructed, missing and fictitious license plates, and recovered more than $21 million in past-due tolls and fees. In 2023, the agency recovered over $25 million from toll evaders. During the first six months of 2024, it issued 4,836 summonses for toll-related violations, with the majority — 3,940, or 81% — for obstructed, missing or fictitious license plates.

On the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a major toll highway that connects western and eastern Pennsylvania, at least 3 in 10,000 people intentionally obstructed their license plates between April 2023 and March 2024, press secretary Marissa Orbanek wrote in an email.

“While the percentage of intentional plate obstruction on the turnpike is very, very small, we are grateful for any additional support and legislation that helps us address toll evasion,” Orbanek said. “It’s really a priority to ensure a fair and equitable toll road system.”

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

©2024 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Police responded to the 200 block of West Mercury Boulevard near the intersection with Seldendale Drive following a report of a crash between a bike and a vehicle at about 4:42 p.m. Officers found a man with life-threatening injuries and began life-saving efforts.

The man died at the hospital. The driver remained on the scene and is cooperating with police. The investigation is ongoing.

The man’s name has not been released pending the notification of his next-of-kin.

Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, gavin.stone@virginiamedia.com

Emergency services received a call just before 11:30 p.m. about the shooting at the 800 block of East Washington Street, near White Marsh Road. At the scene, police found multiple people injured.

According to a police spokesperson, one man was pronounced dead at the scene, and another was pronounced dead at the hospital. Three other people were transported to the hospital, and they are currently receiving treatment for “serious but not life-threatening” injuries, police said.

The victims were 37-year-old William Eugene Goodman Jr. and 30-year-old Demonte Lamont Tillery, both of Suffolk.

Police have not said what may have led to the shooting.

The investigation is ongoing.

Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com

Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, gavin.stone@virginiamedia.com