Police said two 18-year-olds were arrested and a third shooter remained unidentified Monday.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Eight people ages 17 to 24 were wounded after gunfire broke out between two groups near the Oceanfront late Saturday, and police said Monday that two 18-year-old suspects had been arrested while detectives kept searching for a third shooter.
The shooting hit one of Virginia Beach’s busiest resort blocks just as city leaders were trying to steady the Oceanfront ahead of the spring and summer season. It was the second shooting on Atlantic Avenue in about five weeks, following a March 7 case that wounded six people nearby. Since that earlier violence, the city has imposed a weekend 7 p.m. curfew for unaccompanied minors in the Oceanfront zone and pushed the regular citywide curfew for minors to 10 p.m. Officials said the latest case remains under investigation, with video, witness accounts and ballistics work expected to shape what comes next.
Police said officers who were already patrolling the Oceanfront heard gunfire at about 9:50 p.m. Saturday and also received a ShotSpotter alert in the 1400 block of Atlantic Avenue. Officers moved in and found eight people suffering from gunshot wounds. All were taken to area hospitals, where police said their injuries ranged from non-life-threatening to serious, and all were expected to survive. Investigators later said the shooting grew out of an altercation between two unrelated groups of young adults and juveniles and that at least three people exchanged gunfire. Police Chief Paul Neudigate said Monday that the violence came even with extra staffing already in place at the Oceanfront, adding, “Historically that is not something we’ve had to do as a police department.”
Police identified the first suspect as Jamaya Williams, 18, of Henrico County. Investigators said Williams was also among the eight people shot and was found to be carrying two firearms illegally. She was charged with seven counts of aggravated assault, seven counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony, seven counts of reckless handling of a firearm with injury and three counts of violating a protective order. Police said the other seven wounded people came from Chesterfield, Lancaster County, Portsmouth, Richmond and Snellville, Georgia. Their names have not been released. Authorities also have not said how many of the wounded were bystanders, who fired first, or what started the argument. On Monday, police announced that Isaiah Charity, 18, of Richmond, had been arrested and charged with eight counts each of aggravated malicious wounding, using a firearm in the commission of a felony and reckless handling of a firearm with injury. A third suspect was still being sought and was described by police as a Black male wearing a dark hoodie with possible red lettering on the back.
The latest shooting landed on the same Oceanfront corridor where another exchange of gunfire erupted March 7 near the 1800 block of Atlantic Avenue, about four blocks away. In that earlier case, police first found five wounded people and later identified a sixth victim who had gone to a hospital. All were expected to recover. By March 19, police had announced four arrests in that case, which grew into a wider investigation that included attempted robbery and firearm charges. The back-to-back shootings have drawn sharper attention because they happened in a stretch lined with hotels, restaurants and beach businesses that usually serve as the front porch of the city’s tourism economy. The timing has stood out as well. Both shootings happened near 10 p.m. on weekend nights, before the resort season has fully reached its busiest weeks. That has left city officials trying to explain how a district that draws heavy patrols and public investment could see two large gunfire cases in such a short span.
The city had already responded to the March shooting by tightening rules for minors at the Oceanfront. The temporary curfew for unaccompanied minors covers the area from Rudee Park to 31st Street, between Pacific Avenue and the Atlantic Ocean, and runs from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekends through the end of April. Outside that zone, the citywide curfew for minors moved from 11 p.m. to 10 p.m. on March 19. Those changes followed a broader crime report that had pointed in the opposite direction. Virginia Beach police told city leaders in February that Part I violent crime fell 6.7% in 2025 to 419 offenses, the lowest total in five years, and that juvenile shooting victims and juvenile shooting suspects both dropped sharply from the year before. The Oceanfront shootings have complicated that message by focusing attention on a highly visible beach district where one bad night can overshadow broader city trends.
Investigators are now sorting out who did what during the confrontation and whether more charges will follow. Police have not announced a court date for Williams in public releases, and they have not said when Charity will make his first appearance in court. They also have not said whether the unidentified third suspect is among the people already interviewed or whether more arrests are likely. During the investigation, officers separately arrested Jahmari Savage, 21, of Chesapeake, after finding a concealed 9 mm handgun. Police later said Savage was not believed to be connected to the shooting itself. That detail added to the picture city leaders painted Monday of an Oceanfront district where officers say they are encountering more guns early in the warm-weather season. Mayor Bobby Dyer said the city needs stronger backing from state leaders after the latest shooting, telling reporters, “The time is now for us to act, and we must act together.”
By Monday, the Oceanfront had become both a crime scene and a test of the city’s larger promise that the resort strip will remain orderly as crowds grow. Atlantic Avenue is a place where police bicycles, tourists, restaurant workers and beachgoers often move through the same blocks late into the evening. On warm nights, that mix can turn the area busy in a matter of minutes. Neudigate said the department had increased staffing there earlier than usual this year, a sign that officials already saw risk building before Saturday’s violence. Even so, the latest shooting left city leaders again defending the steps they have taken and asking for more tools. The unanswered questions remain the most important ones for detectives and the public alike: what sparked the clash, whether all three shooters knew one another, and how many of the wounded had nothing to do with the dispute before bullets started flying.
As of Monday night, all eight people wounded in the shooting were expected to survive, Williams and Charity were in custody, and detectives were still trying to identify the third suspect. The next public milestone is likely to be a court appearance by the two arrested suspects or another police update as investigators review more video and forensic evidence.
Author note: Last updated April 13, 2026.