Wards Corner Now – Wards Corner, Norfolk, Virginia

8 Responses to Police Identify Beverly Avenue Murder Victim

1. Tim Smith says:

   April 26, 2008 at 6:51 am

   I just found out today who the victim was, Todd lived in Talbot Park and I met him.

   I spent some time with Todd a while back talking about home renovations and the civic league. He was very happy to show me around his home and we talked about the work he was doing to renovate his home. I was in the middle of my own renovation and we had a lot to share. Todd was working to make his home a better place to live . The type of citizen Norfolk needs.
   We, and I mean WE ALL, have let Todd down.

   It sickens me that our leaders have alowed Norfolk to come to this point after all the input from the citizens over the years. And it sickens me to hear the direction our citizens are taken now.

   When I first got involved in the Partnership we had two main goals, Crime and Redevelopment. The two seemed to work together. Get a handle on the crime and redevelopment will follow/redevelop and crime will diminish.

   There was a time were we seemed to have put a dent in the crime and redevelopment was not far behind. WHAT HAPPENED??

   You can spend all the money you have on making your home the best there is; we can give away all the tax money to developers we have so they will build in Norfolk; you can lower our tax base to ZERO if you want but all this is for nothing if we do not get a hold on the crime issue.

   I work in Newport News and when ever I mention I live in Norfolk the first thing most people mention is our crime rate and shootings, cause that is what the Daily Press reports. In todays media world, hungry for violence, don’t you think a story like Todd’s murder would make the national news? Who is going to fill all those condos if all they hear outside of Norfolk is “Inocent military family man murdered by drive by gang shooting”?

   I have been making this point for years at our meetings, it is just now, it starts to become personal when someone I know gets gunned down like an animal on the street, the type of person we want, NO the type of person we NEED, to chose to live in Norfolk.

   Call me when you ALL are serious about making our area and our city a better place to live. If the crime continues you will not have to worry about your taxes cause your property will be worth NOTHING. You can either suck-it-up and have the best police force in the area (it will cost us) or you can buy a gun and lock yourself in your home after dark.

   Tim Smith, Talbot Park

2. Louis Eisenberg says:

   April 26, 2008 at 10:17 am

   Tim, your anger and frustration is understandable. Yes, we have been let down by our elected representatives. Their faked outrage when we tell them that they are not doing enough for the Partnership Area has worn thin. Their speeches about how much money they have spent in our area is laughable, and quite frankly, we just ignore their spouting of this Downtown propaganda. The Partnership is very engaged. The Alexis Apartments on W. Little Creek Road, a rat’s nest of drug dealers, users and prostitutes, have been sold to the City and are scheduled to be demolished. The Norfolk Police Second Patrol Division will have a new home in Central Business Park due to the Partnership pushing for its funding. The Partnership is meeting with the new owners of Mrs. Kim’s properties in Denby Park next Wednesday. I am sure the discussion will be about the redevelopment of the land that those apartments sit on.
   Chris Perry of Suburban Management is very serious about the redevelopment of the Southeast corner of the Business district within the next two years.
   The FBI is in talks with the Norfolk Economic Development Department to relocate their offices in a new building that would be built where the Kroger and the Workforce Development Center are located. A major flagship hotel has also shown interest in being a part of this new office development.
   One last thing, the police have not determined the motive of this heinous crime or caught the criminals that committed it. If you know that this crime is gang related, I would advise you to give that information to the Police.
   Tim, we need you to get engaged again in the Partnership. You are a valued and respected citizen of our Area.

3. Eric Heard says:

   April 26, 2008 at 4:48 pm

   Losing a community person is extremely difficult. I welcome additional information on this shooting. These kinds of heinous crimes are occuring everywhere in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Bach and Chesapeake. Crime is getting out of hand. You are outraged and you should be. I would suggest however that waiting for us to have our stuff in order, is the easy way out. Some of the civic leagues and certainly the Greater Wards Corner Partnership, have a small, but extremely dedicated, attendance. We need you to be at these meetings to express your outrage.
   We have seen at our last meeting that much of crime in our area has decreased. This info tells me we are moving in the right direction. This senseless shooting is an outrage. I cannot blame everything on the council. They certainly share in the blame. Other targets that share in the blame of these situations is that the times are extremely bad economically, jobs are becoming scarce, poverty is right in our front and back yards, government on a national level is not investing in the taxpayers, jobs are geing outsourced to other countries, families are falling apart, we are loosing our homes and we don’t find the time to be courteous and respectful to one and other. These are additional targets to point the finger. The situation is so out of hand that the only way to start putting this mess back together and bring some balance is to participate in civic and official capacities. Even our council members are part of this grass roots population. A man with your passion belongs nowhere else but working on these issues with your civic league and certainly the Greater Wards Corner Partnership. I would welcome you to join our public relations committee, which I am on, or any place you feel you want to vent your outrage to some level of resolution.

4. Nancy Miller says:

   April 26, 2008 at 8:18 pm

   First of all it is Beverly Avenue ,(not Street ) as the Pilot has repeatedly called it….(so much for the accurracy of media reporting( They finally got it right today. They must have asked the police or read the street sign)

   I have been a resident on Beverly Ave. for nearly 40 years, and if there has even been a robbery here I am not aware of it. This incident that occured 3 doors down from my home is very alarming…
   We were attending a Ward’s Corner Partnership meeting that evening and arrived home around 8:30 to find yellow crime tape and 10 or more police vehicles blocking off our street. A very frightening sight as our daughter was home alone. Fortunately I was able to phone her on my cell and she assured me that she was ok!
   The police department is very much on this case and have been here most of today interviewing residents. I have the greatest respect for our police department, and I am positive that this senseless crime will be solved..We on the street do not believe that it is a gang related crime and we will wait for the police to let us know the details when it is solved.

5. John Knight says:

   April 26, 2008 at 11:22 pm

   Another senseless tragedy. The Police Department just a couple weeks ago approached Mrs. Dalis’ agent about housing a bike division in one of her vacant spots. Unfortunately they were blown off by the agent/owner. You have to wonder if officers in the immediate area could have prevented this tragedy or at least made it more likely that the killer was caught. How sad.

6. Tim Smith says:

   April 29, 2008 at 6:43 am

   Eric,

   Obviously you do not remember me at the Partnership Meetings every Saturday for 6 years or the two years as President of Talbot Park and a year as Treasure or meeting as part of the Infrastructure Committee or as Chairman of the Citizen Review Board for Norfolk CDBG Funds for two years or the many Council and Budget meetings I have spoke at.

   Unfortunately I am neither self-employed nor retired and work for a company that requires a lot of my time. In addition my employer is requiring more of my time as my responsibilities grow within the company.

   I have been expressing my outrage for almost 10 years now but until people are ready do something about the problems we all face the problems will continue to grow. I have made it know for years that allowing our youths in the urban areas of Norfolk to continue to kill each other with no community outrage is wrong and will bleed over into the rest of the city, and it has. I have also spoken in public that reducing our tax rate would affect our ability to retain Police and Fire personnel in Norfolk, it has happen. I have spoken to Council about spending more on our neighborhoods and infrastructure before blight and crime overtakes us, it is happening now.

   As far as our Council Members getting involved; one has dropped off the radar completely, one should be ashamed of himself for getting all the retied people worked up over the tax base (don’t you think Council will use the reduced tax rate as an excuse to NOT fund any redevelopment in Wards Corner or give our Police and Fire personnel the resources they need to do their jobs better than any other city in our area), I am still waiting for the one up for re-election to bring change to Council, and the one I have the most respect for is hanging on by her finger tips because she stepped on the wrong toes (I purposely left out their names).

   Until we, as a community, are ready to make the tough sacrifices and put our narrowly focused wants aside and join together and stay focused on the bigger goals of the community, we will always just be one of many small neighborhoods reaching for too few brass rings from Downtown.

   Tim Smith, Talbot Park

   I apologize to the Cox family and Todd’s Fiancé for posting this under this heading and show no disrespect but hope this may inspire others to step forward. I would hate to see Todd’s murder just end up being another statistic.

7. Laurie Cox says:

   April 30, 2008 at 8:29 am

   Tim,
   The family understands your concerns and if this senseless act can inspire change then by all means please voice your concern. Your support for Todd is greatly appreciated. We have all lost an incredible person, father, friend, fiancee…..

   Respectfully,
   Laurie Cox

8. Kelly says:

   April 30, 2008 at 7:15 pm

   This tragic, senseless crime has touched so many. How dare scum from the underbelly of society creep into our neighborhoods. My thoughts and prayers are with the Cox family. As a mother and teacher, my heart literally hurts for those innocent little girls – and the brother left back at the house. This one incident will undoubtedly affect them for the rest of their lives.
   Norfolk has so much to offer, but senselss acts like this make me want to move to Fargo, North Dakota……… or any town that crime hasn’t caught up with yet……
   I hope the Cox family, and Todd’s friends know that an entire community mourns with them. Sometimes a glimmer of strenght can come from knowing that even strangers are pulling for you – and that there ARE good people left in this world.