Correctional facilities will resume family visitation at nine pilot sites
RICHMOND — Families will be able to visit inmates again at nine Virginia correctional facilities next month.
The Department of Corrections announced Wednesday that it will open nine pilot sites for in-person family visits on Sept. 1 and that officials expect these visits will resume at all facilities by Oct. 1. The department reopened all correctional facilities to attorneys and court officials, embassy and consulate officials last month, and this month all facilities were opened to religious visitors and volunteers.
The sites that will open for family visits on Sept. 1 are St. Brides, Greensville, Buckingham, Green Rock and Keen Mountain correctional centers; Caroline and Patrick Henry correctional units; and Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women and Nottoway Work Center.
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Fully vaccinated inmates and probationers can meet with members of the public in person. Video visits are available with unvaccinated inmates. Visitors ages 12 and older must receive a negative result from a rapid antigen test to visit an inmate or probationer in person.
Four men arrested in 2011 killing of nephew of Elijah Cummings
NORFOLK — Norfolk police say they’ve solved the decade-old slaying of a college student who was a nephew of Elijah Cummings, the late Maryland congressman.
WAVY-TV reports that Norfolk police announced Thursday that they have made four arrests in the killing.
Christopher Cummings, 20, was a student at Old Dominion University in 2011 and had just finished his junior year when he was shot and killed in his home. His roommate also was shot but survived.
Police say four men from Newport News have been indicted on 15 charges each, including murder.
Police identified the men as Kwaume Edwards, 32; Javon Doyle, 31; Ahmad Watson, 30; and Rashad Dooley, 28. They have been jailed without bond, police said. It’s not known if any of them has hired an attorney who could comment on the case.
A police news release gave few details about the killing and did not offer a suspected motive. Police Chief Larry Boone said in a statement that investigators “followed up on every lead necessary to ensure the Norfolk Police Department was able to deliver justice to both the surviving victim and to the Cummings family.”
Cummings was the son of the late congressman’s brother, James Cummings. In 2011, Elijah Cummings spoke about the shooting and reflected on what it was like for tragedy to strike his own extended family.
“When it hits your house and it hits your family, I’ll tell you, it’s a lot different because I think it gives you a far better understanding of what people are feeling in those circumstances, and you can also understand the pain and the anger and the desire for closure that is, making sure that whoever might be responsible for an incident like this is brought to justice,” Cummings told The Associated Press then.
The congressman died in 2019.
Portsmouth Police Department taps assistant chief to lead force
PORTSMOUTH — Portsmouth’s assistant police chief has been selected for the department’s top job.
Officials announced Wednesday that City Manager Angel Jones had chosen Renado Prince over two other finalists, The Virginian-Pilot reported. Prince has been with the department since 2018 and has 38 years of law enforcement experience overall.
Most of Prince’s career has been in North Carolina. He worked in the Wilmington Police Department and served as chief of police at the airport in Jacksonville, N.C. He is also a retired Air Force veteran.
The last two Portsmouth police chiefs were forced out. Tonya Chapman raised allegations of systemic racism with the department in 2019 and said she was forced to resign after she tried to modernize Portsmouth’s police culture.
Angela Greene, who replaced Chapman, was fired last year on the same day that a judge dismissed felony charges that police filed against state Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth and 18 others stemming from a protest at the city’s Confederate monument. Greene has since sued the city, alleging wrongful termination and defamation.