Three Women Killed, Two Wounded in Norfolk, Virginia Shooting

A suspect in Norfolk, Virginia shattered the calm of a pleasant early Wednesday evening when he allegedly shot five women, killing three of them. The incident occurred at around 6 p.m. at 800 Whitaker Lane in the Young Terrace Neighborhood.

WAVY News 10 reported the deceased “were identified as 42-year-old Detra R. Brown, of Suffolk, 45-year-old Nicole Lovewine, of Norfolk, and 44-year-old Sara E. Costine, of Lithonia, Georgia.” The 39-year-old and 19-year-old wounded women were transported to the hospital and are expected to recover.

Reportedly, the suspect and his girlfriend, 19, arrived in a car, where he’d allegedly shot her in the shoulder. Witnesses reported soon after the suspect and girlfriend got out of the car, they heard several shots fired. The suspect had allegedly shot the other four women who’d come to the girlfriend’s aid.

WAKG 103.3 said police later identified the suspect as “19-year-old Ziontay Brian Ricardo Palmer, of Virginia Beach.”

According to WAVY, “An eyewitness said Palmer allegedly shot his 19-year-old girlfriend in the shoulder as she sat in the car they had been in. Then as her mother, Lovewine, was approaching the car, he shot her and her friend ‘Dee’ Brown, killing both of them. The neighbor who lived across the walkway, Costine, responded to the gunfire and was shot and killed, too.”

A neighbor said, “Nothing they could do. They were shot execution-style. They had just come home from work.” Other neighbors expressed their shock at such a horrific incident. One neighbor said he helped one woman who was “bleeding to death.” He said he had a towel and told her “the paramedics are coming.”

A Virginia-Pilot’s headline read, “About a dozen children were playing outside, some jumping on a trampoline. That’s when the shooting started.” They also wrote, “Lovewine’s son, who the neighbor said is 10 or 11 and was among the children playing outside, ran over to his mother’s body and lay across it. The boy was crying, the neighbor said, and begged for his mother to get up.”

Police arrested Palmer, who’s been arraigned and charged with three counts of 2nd-degree murder, one count of malicious wounding, and four counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony. Palmer is being held in jail without bail.

After calling the suspect a “coward,” Norfolk Police Chief Larry Boone said, “This has to stop. We need to start speaking up because this, I’ve never seen this in my 30-year career: five women shot. This nonsense has to stop and this idea that everybody can be saved, that’s gone by the way of the dodo bird.”

Chief Boone may have been referring to Virginia’s criminal justice shift over the past several years toward leniency, for even violent criminals, such as being released too easily in the commonwealth. This issue has been widely reported as one reason for the Republican takeover of state government during the recent election.

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Steve Pomper

Steve Pomper is an author, freelance writer, and retired Seattle police officer. During his career, he served as a field training officer, on the Community Police Team, and as a mountain bike patrol coordinator. He’s written five books, including The Obama Gang and De-Policing America, and he is a contributor to the National Police Association and a freelance writer for The Tatum Report.

Originally from New England, he’s a Boston sports fan. He now lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, Jody, a retired firefighter. He enjoys spending time with his adult kids and three grandchildren.