NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — When it comes to youth violence prevention, Lamont Findley doesn't believe in the idea of a conversation being "too soon."
"When it happened at Richneck [Elementary School], I thought now is a good time to have that sit down," Finley said.
In the wake of last month's high-profile Richneck Elementary shooting where a 6-year-old shot his first-grade teacher, Finley got to work organizing a sit-down dialogue with Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew in the cafeteria at Heritage High School.
"The younger we start that relationship, the better. Elementary, middle school to high school," Chief Drew told Heritage students on Thursday morning.
“Oftentimes it's delegated, but for him to say ‘I’ll be there’ meant the world," Finley added, who runs the youth group "Boxing 2 Live."
There have been several high-profile shootings across numerous city schools in recent history, including a shooting at Menchville High School and a September 2021 shooting at Heritage High itself.
Finley said many questions being asked by local youth couldn't be answered, which is why he's grateful Chief Drew committed his morning to show up for the students.
"Moving forward, what will be different? What better person to answer that than Chief Drew," Finley asked.
“Your peers talk about, 'Don’t judge me for my race, my zip code, don’t judge me where I go to school. Judge me for who I am.' And some of those police recruits aren’t much older than seniors in high school," Chief Drew told the Heritage students.
He shared a personal anecdote from the day of the Richneck shooting.
"I got in the car, and the mother who walked her little girl to that classroom. I saw her walking back so she must live in the neighborhood but she's still crying. I stopped the car, and I got out, and I walked over to her and she turned to me and she was crying and I hugged her. Her words to me were, ‘Chief, she’s been okay since we got out of school. But this is her first day back and she said she didn't want me to leave because "I'm afraid something else bad might happen."' I hugged her, we talked for about five minutes, that's it," he said, adding that small interactions like that build long-lasting and meaningful connections for a safer community.
Chief Drew added the department is down roughly 50 officers of the more than 450 NNPD is budgeted for.