NORFOLK, Va. — A day after gunfire rang out near Granby High School, a student is still trying to process how close she may have come to danger.
Sadie Amodio showed News 3's Jay Greene the damage to her car, parked along Harvard Street during Tuesday afternoon’s shooting.
“...if that had happened two hours earlier I might have died...” she said.
Standing next to the vehicle, Amodio pointed out the bullet damage — one round through the hood, another through the side, and a third into the driver’s door.
At the time, she was inside the school taking a test. She said students were later told they wouldn’t be able to return to their cars right away.
“They told us that we’d have to get a ride home because there was police cars here and we couldn’t get access to our cars,” she said.
What makes the situation even more surreal, she said, is how she found out her car had been hit.
"My friends were like, 'oh my gosh, what if your car got shot?' And I would be like, 'yeah, that, that would suck, that would be pretty bad.' And then later that night I came to find out that it got shot 3 times," she said.
According to Norfolk Police, shots were fired around 1:20 p.m. Tuesday in the 200 block of Harvard Street, just steps from campus.
Within minutes, both Granby High School and the nearby elementary school were placed on lockdown.
Norfolk Public Schools says families were first notified just after 2 p.m., with a broader message sent later in the afternoon. The lockdowns were lifted around 2:46 p.m., and buses began leaving campus shortly after.
For some parents, that timeline didn’t match what they say they were experiencing in real time.
Penny Martin, who has three children at the school, said she first learned about the situation from her daughter — not the district.
“I called her phone because I still hadn’t heard from the school yet… I’ve now talked to two of my children… I can’t get a hold of the 3rd… and still no call,” Martin said.
She described the experience as chaotic and frightening as she tried to reach all three of her children.
“I’m in full blown like hysterics trying to find my children… nobody’s saying anything… I had no idea what was going on,” she said. “We’re all still in just complete shock at this point of how this happened.”
Police say no one was injured, but three vehicles were damaged by gunfire. Investigators are still working to identify those responsible, and no charges have been announced.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Norfolk Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP or submit a tip through the P3Tips app.
For Amodio, the reality of what happened is still setting in.
“It’s kind of surreal to see it in real life… I mean like literally somebody shot my car… I would have never thought that I’d actually have to say that, and it’s just something that happened I guess… I’m just glad I wasn’t in it, because I mean, if that had happened earlier, I don’t even know… it’s just crazy to think about.”
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