Newport News officials in the community following deadly shooting of 15-year-old

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew attended a briefing Wednesday afternoon following the tragic deadly shooting of a 15-year-old Menchville High School student .

Just before 6:20 a.m. Tuesday morning, Newport News Police responded to a ShotSpotter activation at the intersection of 16th Street and Garden Drive, where kids were waiting at a bus stop to head to Menchville High School.

Officers arrived to the scene to find a 15-year-old boy suffering from a life-threatening gunshot wound. He was taken to a local hospital where he later died from his injuries.

Chief Drew and Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones spent time in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred Wednesday morning, making sure kids made it safely to their bus stops.

“I think the most important thing we can do for our community is to be visible, to take care of our kids,” Mayor Jones said. “So we just, Chief [Drew] gave [a student] a fist bump, we asked how she was doing. You know, that’s the first thing the kids see when they get on the school bus. We are just here to support them here this morning.”

Chief Drew, who was the last city official to leave the neighborhood just before 8 a.m., spoke with 10 On Your Side’s Raven Payne about the importance of being there for the community during this tragedy.

“I think the mayor set the tone, I think this is a great community, it’s a strong community,” Chief Drew said. “We wanted to have people out here – city resources, right. So, we have the Cares Team, we have people from the fire department, police officers, the mayor here. We got to walk through the neighborhood, talk to some citizens this morning. Meeting the bus drivers, just checking on them. I think that’s important and I think the community respects that.”

He said detectives are talking with the victim’s’ family.

“I’m allowing the detectives to do that to build some rapport there and get some information to work on that motive.”

Drew said there’s no suspect information to put out at this time.

The briefing is expected to take place Wednesday afternoon.

Continue to check WAVY.com for updates .

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