Drug-related slayings on the rise in Richmond, authorities say

Drug-related homicides
Richmond has already had more drug-related killings this year than in all of 2008.

2009 year to date: 10 out of 15 total killings (66.6 percent)

2008 calendar year: 9 out of 32 total killings (28 percent)

2007 calendar year: 10 out of 55 total killings (18 percent)

2006 calendar year: 25 out of 81 total killings (31 percent)

SOURCE: Richmond Police Department:

Buying drugs in Richmond is becoming a deadlier pursuit.

Drugs have played a significant role in about 67 percent of this year's homicides, with would-be customers carrying hundreds of dollars and getting killed for the money, authorities say.

"It's the No. 1 factor," said Richmond Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Learned Barry. "You go buy drugs, you've got a good chance of getting killed."

Buying drugs has always carried some risk, but authorities started to notice a trend in the last three months of 2008, when four out of eight killings in Richmond were either drug robberies or otherwise drug-related.

So far in 2009, the city has seen fewer homicides overall than during the same period last year, but at least 10 of this year's 15 killings -- or about 67 percent -- appear to be drug-related, Barry said.

Henrico County police say that none of the county's homicides this year has been ruled drug-related. The motives are unknown in some of the cases. Chesterfield and Hanover counties have had no homicides so far in 2009.

Richmond's recent spate of drug-related slayings includes Monday's death of Kelvin R. Green, 38, who was shot in a car in broad daylight near Third Avenue and East Brookland Park Boulevard in the Highland Park area.

Police quickly made an arrest that day, charging an 18-year-old man with conspiracy to commit murder and possession of drugs with intent to distribute in connection with the killing.

Members of Green's family were left to grieve before a crowd of dozens of people watching as police processed the crime scene.

"You've got some decent people from decent families getting killed because they're out buying drugs," Barry said.

"The Richmond police will eventually catch your killer, and the Richmond prosecutors will eventually convict your killer," Barry added. "But you're still dead, and your family's still devastated forever."

The city's annual homicide numbers are far below what they once were. In 1994, the crack epidemic was blamed for many of the 160 killings that year.

By comparison, city police recorded 32 homicides last year, the lowest number since at least the early 1970s. Of that total, nine were drug-related.

Drug-related killings can be some of the most difficult to solve because of the complex relationships of the players, the clandestine nature of the business and the fact that witnesses often are involved in criminal activity, police say.

But Richmond police Maj. John Venuti said authorities often bring in more resources to solve such killings, seeking help from state and federal law-enforcement agencies.

Police have made arrests in nine of this year's 15 homicides, Venuti said. Seven of those nine cases are drug-related. On the same day police arrested the 18-year-old, they captured another suspect in a drug-related shooting that killed a man and wounded a woman March 31 on Henrico Boulevard in North Richmond.

In explaining the surge in drug-related killings, Venuti said that tough drug enforcement has dried up some of the city's traditional drug corners. That has prompted some criminals to look for other ways to make money, such as robbing would-be buyers who might be unfamiliar with their surroundings and almost certainly have cash on them.

"That's the deadly part of the game -- you've got cash on hand," Venuti said. "There's no such thing as going to buy drugs with no money."

Not buying them at all, authorities say, could be a life-saving decision.

"If I can just get one kid to say, 'I'm not going to go to Gilpin Court to buy drugs,'" Barry said, "we've stopped a murder."

Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or rwilliams@timesdispatch.com.