A man was injured in a shooting in the 2000 block of Sunrise Avenue in Chesapeake on Sunday morning, and within hours, police had a suspect in custody following a short vehicle pursuit. Officers were first notified of the incident after a man with a gunshot wound arrived at a local hospital, according to police.
The report came in around 11:45 a.m. on Sunrise Avenue, according to a news release from the Chesapeake Police Department, which was cited by 13News Now. Accounts of the shooting conflict on a key detail: 13News Now reported that officers found a 15-year-old male with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound who was taken to a hospital, while WAVY reported that police responded after an adult male arrived at a local hospital with a gunshot wound, without describing the severity of that injury.
Chase Leads To Arrest Near Weaver Street
While investigating on Sunrise Avenue, officers located a crime scene on Weaver Street and heard multiple gunshots, according to the station's report. Police canvassed the area and obtained a description of a suspect vehicle, which they later located; a short pursuit followed, ending with the arrest of 19-year-old Jahmeeze Dennis. Police said there was no threat to the community at the time of the report, and Chesapeake detectives were described by WAVY as actively investigating the incident.
It remains unclear exactly how the Weaver Street crime scene and the gunfire officers heard there relate to the shooting victim found near Sunrise Avenue, and that connection has not been spelled out in available reporting. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP, through p3tips.com, or via the P3 Tips mobile app.
Sunrise Avenue Has Seen Violence Before
Sunday's shooting is not the first act of gun violence tied to that stretch of Chesapeake. In 2022, a man was found shot and lying on a sidewalk in the 3000 block of Sunrise Avenue and later died at a hospital, according to WTKR, which reported that police identified the victim as 19-year-old Tyshawn McNeil.
Other recent shootings in the city underscore a pattern of gun violence touching young victims. A Sept. 21 shooting on Sun Avenue left a 15-year-old suffering from life-threatening gunshot wounds, WAVY reported in a separate account. And in July, four people, including a child, were injured in an early-morning Chesapeake shooting, according to The Virginian-Pilot, which reported that police found three men and one boy with gunshot wounds, none of them life-threatening.
State health officials track this kind of violence through emergency-room data. The Virginia Department of Health maintains a dashboard of firearm-related deaths among state residents, and a related agency page notes that firearm-injury emergency-department visits are tracked as counts and rates per 10,000 ED visits, allowing comparisons over time and across demographic and geographic groups.
Sunday's investigation remains active, and Chesapeake police have not released additional details about charges against Dennis or the condition of the person who was shot.
