NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Someone will step up and say something: That’s the passionate hope of Melessia Scott, whose adult daughter was shot in crossfire in what appears to be a gang-related shootout on Christmas Eve.
Courtney Burwell, 34, and her 14-year-old daughter were in the front seat of her Nissan SUV. It was the day before Christmas and they were at the Watergate convenience store at Church Street and Olney Road in Norfolk.
“They were on their way from getting something to drink and that’s when about 10 or 15 guys in masks started shooting out of nowhere at each other,” Scott said.
Burwell heard the shots and leaned over toward her teenage daughter.
“[Burwell] was trying to hold her daughter down so she wouldn’t get shot, and that’s when they continued to shoot,” Scott said.
A bullet cracked through the windshield, into Burwell’s mouth and embedded in her jaw. Scott got a phone call with the terrible news.
“If you have kids, you can imagine. When I first got that phone call and my granddaughter said, ‘Mommy got shot.’ I thought I lost my daughter. That’s the worst feeling in the world,” Scott said.
And then she saw Burwell in the hospital for the first time.
“I couldn’t control myself. I was a mess. I actually had panic attacks,” Scott said.
It happened immediately adjacent to Young Terrace, the same place where three women were killed in November in what police described as a domestic-related shooting.
“You walk out [my daughter’s] door and walk about 20 feet, and that’s where those three bodies of those women were,” Scott said.
Doctors removed the bullet and Burwell is recovering. Scott says there haven’t been any new leads but she doesn’t fault Norfolk police. She says anyone who saw something needs to say something.
“The police department, they can’t do this on their own. Somebody out there knows something,” Scott said.
Burwell continues her miraculous recovery. In the meantime, if you know anything about what happened in that parking lot at the corner of Olney Road and Church Street about 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve, you’re asked to contact police.
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