A man was rushed to the hospital early Monday after Portsmouth police found him suffering from a gunshot wound in the 100 block of Edison Avenue, the latest in a string of shootings that has rattled the city over the past week. Officers responded to the scene at 3:33 a.m., and the man's condition remained unknown as of the department's initial report.
Portsmouth Police are investigating the shooting, according to WAVY.com, which first reported that officers found the man wounded before he was transported to a local hospital for treatment. The outlet reported the Edison Avenue shooting marks the fifth shooting in Portsmouth since the previous week, though that tally was not independently verified against an official police incident log.
Neighbors Describe a Corner House Turned Nightclub
Neighbors near Edison Avenue and Deep Creek told the station the block had been a headache-inducing nightmare for the past month, centered on a corner home that residents say operates like a nightclub. One neighbor said parties had occurred three to five times a week over that stretch, with crowds estimated at anywhere from 60 to 200 people packing the house and spilling into the yard.
Another estimate put the line to get inside at 50 to 60 people waiting at once, the station's report notes. Neighbors said hundreds of attendees partied loudly both outside and inside the house on the nights it was in use, and some residents said the neighborhood used to be nice before someone moved into the corner property.
Trash, Trespassing and Sleepless Nights
Those living nearby described cars parked in their yards and driveways on most nights of the week, along with people who walked up driveways, pulled on car door handles and dumped trash on private property, per the same account. One neighbor said residents had to usher strangers off their own property at all hours, cutting into their sleep night after night.
When the gunfire broke out, one neighbor described chaos: someone was on the ground screaming while people scattered and ran, while one or two people tried to help amid the panic, according to the unlinked account relayed in the same report.
A Related Property Faces City Scrutiny
A separate case tied to the broader pattern of neighborhood gunfire has drawn attention from code enforcement. A city notice posted at a related property gave its corporate owner 10 days to clear the residence of weeds and debris, as reported in a separate WAVY investigation. Real estate records showed that home was owned by a corporation and not owner-occupied, the outlet found. That same report said the earlier Westhaven-area shooting marked the fourth time shots had been fired in that neighborhood in recent months, according to local residents — a separate incident from the Edison Avenue case, though it points to a wider pattern of gunfire concerns across Portsmouth neighborhoods.
Part of a Rough Stretch for Portsmouth
The Edison Avenue shooting came just a day after two male juveniles were injured in a shooting on Bird Lane in Portsmouth, suffering non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, according to WAVY.com. Medics transported both victims to a local hospital for treatment, and that case remained an active investigation.
It also followed a shooting early Saturday in the 600 block of Lanier Crescent, where Portsmouth police responded to a report of gunfire just before 12:10 a.m. and found a man with a gunshot wound, as reported by WTKR. There was no word on the severity of his injuries in that case either.
House-party violence has surfaced elsewhere in the region recently too. In Arlington, Virginia, five people were shot following a dispute at a house party on Sept. 26, according to NBC Washington, which reported that one woman was seriously hurt but stable while four others suffered non-life-threatening injuries. No suspect, arrest or motive has been identified in the Edison Avenue shooting, and the circumstances connecting it to the nearby parties remain unconfirmed as police continue their investigation.
