Just a day after I posted a story exploring the different circumstances surrounding incidents of gun violence in Charlottesville over the last six months, a new circumstance was added: the police shooting and killing of a gun-wielding 44-year old man on Tuesday, February 28 near the Red Roof Inn at the 250/29 intersection.

The circumstance surrounding the killing of Billy Sites, a man wanted for outstanding warrants, is under scrutiny as eyewitnesses and family members, some of whom claim there were present when Sites was shot by Albemarle County police, have offered accounts of what happened that conflict with the one offered by Charlottesville Chief Michael Kochis, who served as the official spokesperson in the aftermath of the shooting. Kochis said that after a prolonged attempt at trying to negotiate with Sites, who had a gun and had already fired it at least once, police fired when he pointed his gun at them.

What’s more, Sites’s family members have themselves offered conflicting accounts of what happened in local news interviews and on social media, and according to court records, Sites’ father, Cecil, and fiancee, Chistina Martinez, filed assault and petty larceny charges against each other in 2021. The case was dismissed last November.

The shooting will be automatically investigated by the Virginia State Police, but City Councilor Michael Payne has called for an independent investigation and the release of police body cam footage.

"This is a case where an independent investigation and the release of body cam footage is vital," wrote Payne in a social media post. "While initial reports are that Albemarle County Police fired the fatal shots, Charlottesville police were involved in the response. The Police Civilian Oversight Board needs to be involved in an independent investigation of the circumstances of Charlottesville’s police response & review all available body cam footage."

Just days after Sites was shot and killed, there was yet another circumstance surrounding an incident of gun violence added to the mix: a shootout that took place inside a convenience store on Cherry Avenue in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday, March 4 between three young men, aged 17 to 20, which left one young man dead, another wounded, and one in custody.

Recently, the Albemarle County Police department put out a press release announcing they had taken a 13-year-old into custody for brandishing a firearm at a private school on Earlysville Road. ACPD also announced they had arrested Taquarius Olando Catoe-Anderson, 19, who was wanted by Charlottesville Police on a shooting charge. While the ACPD release didn’t identify the date or circumstances surrounding the incident, according to court records, the offense date of the charges against Catoe-Anderson was 9.28.2022, the same day two men were shot and wounded while driving their car down Anderson Street. The aftermath of that shooting was caught on video as neighbors tended to one of the wounded.

Charlottesville Police also announced they had arrested Raymaqu'a Antonio Nicholas, 19, for shooting and killing Nicklous Gregory Pendleton, 20, while he was driving down Hardy Drive in his pickup truck. Pendleton’s brother, who was also inside the pickup truck, suffered a broken leg.

At a City Council budget workshop this week, Chief Kochis outlined an ambitious plan to reduce gun violence, make the community safer, and build trust between the police and the community.

Kochis told Councilors he's assigned an officer to be a "community involvement coordinator" and wants to form a "community action team" made up of community members who will advise community outreach efforts. He also wants to start a "community police academy" of volunteers who will help out at community outreach events. As he did as Chief in Warrenton, he wants officers to hand out cards with QR codes on them linking to an "interaction survey" people can fill out.

Of course, the irony of police departments leading efforts to reduce gun violence is that police themselves in the U.S. have shot and killed 1,079 people in the last 12 months, according to the Washington Post's police shooting database. Indeed, during the Chief’s recent community forum on gun violence, a lot of that distrust was on display.

Kochis also said CPD is collaborating with the FBI concerning gun violence to find out where all the guns are coming from. (Did we mention that the U.S. has a ratio of 120.5 firearms per 100 residents, far greater than any other country in the world?). He's also stepping up the department's social media game, assigning staff to make posts, which he says will help with recruitment. Kochis also wants more women on the force, 30% women by the end of the decade, and says new officer recruitment depends on, among other factors, better pay/benefits and how officers are treated within the department.

This week, C-Ville Weekly also has a good long-form story about the broader issue of gun violence in Charlottesville, but again, the discussion it captures, along with an obligatory shrug about “all those guns available out there,” morphs into a laundry list of ideas about fixing people and societies ills, including hiring more police officers, paying police better, more police officers patrolling gun violence "hot spots," specialized task forces and patrols, building trust between the police and the community, and addressing mental health care, poverty, social media use, the lack of youth activities and mentos, parenting responsibilities, joblessness, housing, and even street lighting.

It’s a crazy-making thing to watch. It’s like having a discussion about reducing traffic fatalities that addresses everything but the operation of vehicles. Or someone who keeps gasoline canisters in their closets emphasizing the importance of opening the windows everyone once in a while and not lighting matches in the house.

Indeed, while the recent community forum on gun violence that Chief Kochis held at Old Trinty Church (just a day before the police-involved shooting that claimed Sites’ life) didn’t result in any clear solutions to gun violence, it was a revealing look at a community caught in the crossfire of its problems.

CASPCA debacle gets state attention

"Charlottesville SPCA volunteer dismissed after raising safety concerns amid ongoing investigation" - Daily Progress, February 23

When the dismissal of a volunteer dog walker makes headlines, you know that 1) CASPCA leadership has lost control of the narrative and 2) the intensity of this dispute has perhaps grown disproportional to the importance of the issues being raised.

Still, the drama continues, as the DP reported that the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors went into a closed session recently to discuss their $699,122-a-year relationship with the CASPCA for pound services. It's estimated that the City gives about $300,000 a year to the shelter.

All this has promoted the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Customer Services (with support from the ACPD) to get involved. The DP reported that the state agency inspected the facility. According to a report that the paper obtained, while the VDACS found no evidence that any of the animals were abused or mistreatment, there were some documentation violations and evidence that the CASPCA had failed to report "at least six animals" that were accepted from an out-of-state agency in 2021, a violation of Virginia law, and the second time the CASPCA has done so, the report said.

The CASPCA Board itself has also hired a law firm to investigate the allegations.

Meanwhile, press releases from CASPCA Concerns, the group of former CASPCA employees and volunteers who brought attention to problems at the shelter, continue to arrive in the inboxes of local journalists, the latest one relaying the written concerns, data analysis, and theories of someone who volunteers doing laundry at the shelter.

“It is obvious that this is a much larger and complex issue than many folks are aware,” writes the laundry volunteer, explaining that they are “not part of the coup,” but simply an interested community member who “happens to really like doing laundry.”  

“It seems that much of the relevant information is kept hidden, and it is distressing to see how the story is being spun away from the initial allegations in CC’s 17JAN letter,” the laundry volunteer writes, at one point referencing the Watergate scandal and Deep Throat’s advice to follow the money. Seriously!

According to 990 tax filings, for 2017, embattled executive director Angela Gunter’s first full year on the job, the non-profit took in over $4 million in contributions, over $2.5 million more than it did in 2016, and had $1,645,280 in net income. For 2020, the non-profit took in over $3.4 million in contributions and had a $261,131 loss in net income. Gunter’s executive compensation was $168,400.

But the laundry volunteer didn’t stop there, speculating that the focus on allegations of animal cruelty by the law firm the CASPCA Board hired will be “used as a subterfuge tactic by the Board and their PR firm because nothing raises the ire of the public more than animal cruelty complaints.”

“But when no one finds any evidence of animal cruelty, the issues of Ms. Gunter’s poor management and the Board’s lack of concern in addressing the employee issues will be buried in the ashes of this investigation.”

Netflix special?