Police chief says a fight over a spilled drink resulted in a shooting that killed two people, including reporter Sierra Jenkins

A quarrel over a spilled drink led to Fr. a shooting that killed two peopleincluding a reporter, and injured three others near a restaurant and bar in downtown Norfolk last weekend, the city police chief said.

Chief Larry Boone On Monday night, the Norfolk Civic League said the dispute began at Chicho’s Pizza Backstage on Saturday but ended in a street shooting, news agencies reported. Sierra JenkinsA 25-year-old reporter for The Virginian-Pilot and the Daily Press and 25-year-old Devon Harris of Portsmouth were caught in a line of fire and killed, police said. Three others were injured.

Jenkins was tasked with covering the latest Saturday news reportedand when the editor first learned of the shooting, he called Jenkins several times to ask her to come to the scene – not realizing that Jenkins was one of the victims of the shooting.

Her close friend Demi Niemer was with Jenkins when the shooting began. “I am devastated,” Niemer told the newspaper in a text message. “I was with her when it all happened and just wanted to do more to help her.”

Dozens of family and friends gathered at Granby High School in Norfolk on Sunday night for a vigil in honor of Jenkins, the newspaper said. reported.

Jenkins grew up in Norfolk and graduated from the University of Georgia. She worked as an intern at Atlanta Magazine and CNN before joining The Pilot in December 2020.

“This is another incident in which there was no solution to the conflict,” Boone said.

Investigators have no hard witnesses regarding the suspect, but Boone said he was “cautiously optimistic” they would be arrested based on where the shooting took place.

Boone said witnesses are still being questioned and the issue of rewards is being considered.

An early Saturday shooting in central Norfolk was just one incident on a 20-hour stretch of Hampton Roads that killed at least 15 people, four of them fatally, according to The Virginian-Pilot.

Despite staff shortages, intensified patrols will begin Thursday for better downtown calm, Boone said. He said additional personnel would come from special units to supplement officers patrolling downtown.