4 teenagers shot in RVA over the weekend

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - It was a violent weekend across the Richmond area. Four teens were shot, with two high school students losing their lives.

All of the victims were 18-years-old and younger.

On Sunday, 17-year-old Samiyah Yellardy was found dead inside an apartment on Richmond’s southside. Yellardy was a student at George Wythe High School.

Yellardy’s mother was out of town at the time of the shooting and returned to the devastating loss of her daughter.

Neighbors say they heard the gunfire overnight.

Charles Willis, with United Communities Against Crime, says the family is asking anyone with information to come forward.

“The mom is asking a lot of questions herself,” Willis said. “Why would someone come into her home and destroy the livelihood that she has worked so hard to prepare for her young one. Samiyah was a bright young lady, full of joy, full of life and loved school.”

On Monday afternoon, Richmond officers, faith leaders, Richmond Department of Social Services, Richmond Behavioral Health and ChildSavers went around the neighborhood, knocking on doors to help the community recover and cope following the violence.

On Sunday, there were also two more shootings. An 18-year-old man has life-threatening injuries after getting shot inside an apartment complex off East Broad Street.

Just a couple of hours before that, a 17-year-old was shot in Henrico’s west end on Fon Du Lac Road - he was rushed to the hospital and is expected to survive.

On Saturday morning, 16-year-old Highland Springs High School student Jaheim Dickerson was gunned down right outside his home in Henrico’s east end just after midnight on Glenwilton Drive.

He was taken to VCU Medical Center, where he later died.

Both school divisions sent letters to families notifying them of resources at schools on Monday to help students with their grief.

Nurturing Minds, a Richmond non-profit, is also looking to be there for parents.

“We provide services where families can come out and discuss and provide a support group,” Ticeses Teasley, with Nurturing Minds, said. “We’re actually in the process of putting together a dinner called the Love Left Behind to assist parents in processing through trauma and developing trauma healing.”

It’s senseless violence that community activists say they need all the support they can get to change.

“We need all the other community groups to come out and let’s rebuild this village,” Willis said. “Just as we have over at Belt Atlantic, just as we have over in Hillside, and just as we will do here in Afton.”

On Tuesday, the Eastern Henrico Community Center is planning a community conversation about how to better help young people reduce the violence in the streets.

Willis says a vigil will be held for Yellardy on Wednesday at 5 p.m. at 1500 Afton Avenue.

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