‘It’s sickening’: Hampton Roads anti-gun violence activist reacts to weekend shootings

HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) – “It’s sickening. I mean it really is it’s bad,” said Christopher Moore, an anti-gun violence activist.

Between May 4 and May 5, four separate shootings occurred in three Hampton Roads cities.

Saturday night a restaurant security guard was shot in Hampton on Buckroe Avenue, police said the man’s injuries are life-threatening.

On Sunday around 2 a.m. a Portsmouth man was shot near the intersection of Elm Avenue and Duke Street, police said that man is expected to be okay.

Sunday around 6:30 p.m. a man was shot in killed in Chesapeake at an Exxon gas station on Military Highway.

Just after 10:30 p.m., 28-year-old Zavier Tyrone Allen Johnson III was shot and killed on Mt. Vernon Avenue in Portsmouth.

“We have to do better [in the] community. We have to do better,” said Moore.

Moore created the anti-gun violence organization, Bagz4dakidz.

“It’s a youth advocate, gun violence prevention organization, where we go into our communities where gun violence is prevalent. We provide services and all type of different things for the kids. Education about gun violence with the kids. And we just go through our all Hampton and Newport News with our program to try to tackle this issue of guns,” he said.

Moore carries a poster with the faces of people who have died by gun violence. He said youth often recognize the people who are on the posters. He shared a story he remembers of a little girl.

“We were at Newport News Oyster Point apartments and she said, ‘Mommy, I told you I was going to see daddy again.’ And she pointed to a deli on the picture, you know. You know, that was kind of like, wow,” said Moore.

On June 29, Bagz4dakidz invites the community to softball game called Hood Celebrity Softball Extravaganza. It’s from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Briarfield Park, in Hampton.

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