The population of Charlottesville is small relative to other cities in the Commonwealth. It has about 45,000 year-round residents. In 2024, 163 of them were arrested for violent crimes, but in 2025, the number feel to 123. Police chief Michael Kochis credits a targeted, data-drive approach to prevention.
“We sit down and review the prior month’s data, and we will adjust how we’re deploying our resources based on what we’re seeing – trends we’re looking at," he explains. "Then we identify those specific individuals who continue to prey on the community.”
But, he says, the problem of gun-related crime persists, in part because guns are so prevalent but also because people are picking fights online.
“Most of the gun violence that we’re seeing stem from petty beefs and more individuals carrying firearms. These petty beefs can start, and they get online on social media or something, and they linger out there, and next thing you know they’re picking up firearms and trying to settle those petty beefs.”
A number of community groups have stepped up to try and address this and other causes of gun-related crime. The UHURU Foundation, the Fountain Fund, Central Virginia Violence Interrupters and – most recently – Voices of Black Mothers United. Its founder is Sylvia Bennett-Stone whose daughter, a college student hoping to become a pediatrician, was a bystander -- killed in a gas station shootout.
“Because our young people, who are doing more of the shooting, stealing guns, don’t know how to shoot," she speculates. "They don’t know how to aim, and in their heart they really don’t care. They’ve become desensitized to trauma, and they think this is life.”
Bennet-Stone’s organization recently set up shop in Charlottesville and Richmond, hoping to help parents prevent tragedies. She says police can’t do this job alone.
“They may not know how to address the violence in a certain community. That doesn’t mean that they just don’t care. They just don’t know how! Those in the community would know best what’s going on in this block that needs to stop.”
And they may also have a sense for other parents who are struggling.
“Some of us need help parenting and may not want to ask. We can identify those who don’t know how to ask and just bring those resources in for them.”
She says kids today need to be taught – by example – how to be kind and recalls her latest opportunity to do so.
“You know how you go through the Chick-fil-A drive thru. One person goes, then the next person goes, and I was getting ready to go, and another car was coming. She got out of her car and swore at me," she3 recalls. "If I would have met her with that same attitude, what would have happened? But I recognized that it may be a bad day for her. I did not get out of my car, but I did say, ‘Ma’am, I’m so sorry. Please go ahead on and let me pay for your bill. I met her with kindness as opposed to matching her with anger.”
Bennett-Stone is working with UVA Health which recently hosted its third annual Gun Violence Prevention Summit and has launched a hospital-based violence intervention program to connect victims with community-based support. That’s because they have a 45% chance of suffering another violent injury within five years.
Violence intervention specialists meet with victims and their loved ones to talk about the risks of retaliation and re-injury. They also follow-up to help patients make life changes to reduce the odds of future assaults.
