RICHMOND, Va.—Police say a Virginia fire lieutenant killed in a Thanksgiving night shooting was not the intended target and was trying to protect one of her children when she was shot.
Richmond fire Lt. Ashley Nicole Berry was celebrating Thanksgiving at the home of her boyfriend’s family in Hopewell and was getting ready to leave when she was hit by gunfire.
Hopewell Police Chief Kamran Afzal told The Richmond Times-Dispatch that Berry was struck when a gunman fired at an adjacent home.
Afzal said the 33-year-old mother of three was shielding her child when the gunfire started.
Police said a silver or gold SUV was seen leaving the area.
During a news conference at fire headquarters Tuesday, Berry’s family pleaded with the public to provide leads to investigators.
US Murders Drop
Not since 1999 has the United States seen the number of murders drop so precipitously as in 2018, when 1,080 fewer people died of homicide or non-negligent manslaughter than the year before, according to national crime statistics released by the FBI on Sept. 30.
The murder rate dropped to 5 per 100,000 residents, a decline of 6.8 percent from 2017.
Overall, the violent crime rate dropped by 3.9 percent, most notably the robbery rate, which slid by 12.6 percent in 2018. The property crime rate, meanwhile, decreased by 6.9 percent. The burglary rate, in particular, declined by 12.5 percent.
Of the seven crimes captured in the data—homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, and car theft—only rape was up in 2018, by 2.1 percent.
The decline in crimes accelerated from 2017, when the violent crime rate dropped by about 1 percent and the rate of property crime fell by 3.6 percent.
The past two years saw a decrease from the major crime spike in the two years prior. Between 2014 and 2016, the murder rate had increased by more than 20 percent. The country hadn’t seen a two-year increase so steep for decades.
Epoch Times reporter Petr Svab contributed to this report.
