NORFOLK, Va. – One year later, the memories are still painful.
On Nov. 3, 2021, five women were shot in a mass shooting in Norfolk’s Young Terrace neighborhood. Three of the women died and two other women were hurt.
“I’ve never witnessed anything like that in my life,” said one neighbor who asked not to be named. “It was like a movie. It felt so unreal.”
Nicole Lovewine, 45; her partner Detra Brown, 42; and their neighbor Sara Costine, 44, were shot dead. Shazelle Marie Dixon and Angel Legrande were wounded. The senseless gun violence left many in the community broken and shattered.
“A lot of the neighbors are still afraid when I talk to them,” said Clay Marquez with Guns Down. “Every time there’s a shooting that’s close that may be across the street or something, it triggers something.”
The victims’ neighbor said she’ll never forget that horrific night. She lived next door to Lovewine and Detra, and said she knew them for seven years.
“They were two very nice women,” she said. “They kept to themselves but when they came out, we spoke for a long time.”
Costine lived across the yard from Lovewine with three of her six children. She’d just moved in a couple of months before the mass shooting. The victims’ neighbor remembers seeing her friends dead on the ground.
“We haven’t forgot about them,” she said.
On the somber anniversary, their friend made a new memorial with balloons, candles and a sign, symbolizing domestic violence. She was wearing pictures of the women close to her heart.
“I know this is a hard day again because they’re reliving this whole thing again,” she said.
And as the pain lingers, families said they don’t feel any safer.
“Nothing has changed; it’s unsafe,” the neighbor said. “At night, we got to hurry up and get into the house. Every day, you hear the same shots. It’s not safe for our babies to be out here playing at all.”
Community activist Clay Marquez with Guns Down, has been working with families and children to find solutions. He said the kids need more things to do and the neighborhood needs more attention.
“Everybody has to get involved,” Marquez said. “Not just when a situation happens and just for a photo op, and then everybody goes on their way. This is an everyday thing you got to tackle.”
The families of the women who were killed tell News 3 they’re still healing.
Costine’s daughter-in-law Sara Sepulveda said, “We hope this tragedy will bring awareness to the real issue at hand with gun violence in this country and show other that it is impacting and has impacted our family and many others extremely.”
The shooting suspect Ziontay Palmer is being held in the Hampton Roads Regional Jail. His lawyer, Eric Korslund, said he’s still in jail and is being mentally evaluated. Palmer’s next court date is scheduled for Feb. 2, 2023, in Norfolk court.
