HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- His daughter talked of starting her own hairstylist business one day.
Mike Richards said his 16-year-old daughter Jamirah Washington was on track to graduate high school early.
Her family can now only ponder what dreams Jamirah was yet to have, after she was shot and killed at White Oak Village on Saturday.
“That I will never know. It’s a mystery to say what she really wanted because she was taken away from us too early, too soon,” Richards said.
The shooting happened in the afternoon outside several stores at the shopping center off Laburnum Avenue on July 3.
Another young man was also shot but survived. Richards said Jamirah was caught in crossfire.
“She was innocent; she didn’t deserve that; she didn’t do nothing to anybody to deserve that, so we can’t call it karma,” he said.
Richards said he reconnected with his daughter for the first time in her life two years ago.
He said in the past few years, their bond grew, and his family saw how her big smile and laugh could light up an entire room.
“It was just a beautiful bond man, like no other. She was going good places. The teachers loved her; people on her mom’s side loved her; she was getting love from everywhere,” he said.
Henrico Police continue to investigate the shooting and several deadly incidents that occurred in the county over the weekend.
Henrico Police leaders are set to address the violence on Wednesday.
Richards said his family is backing the efforts by law enforcement, and they are demanding justice for Jamirah and other families.
“This family gives their condolences to all innocent lives of those families because we know how you feel,” he said.
“If y’all guys watching that did this, I have to find in my heart to say I forgive y’all, I forgive y’all. Just turn yourselves in. You were wrong!” Karen Richards, Jamirah’s paternal grandmother, said. “Young boys, put them guns down. Y’all don’t know what to do with them. Y’all taking our families away!”
Anyone with information about the multiple homicides in Henrico County over the weekend was asked to contact Henrico Police.
This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.
