BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL
DANVILLE — The Sunday morning shooting that killed three people along East Main Street is a sign of the times, residents said this morning.
City detectives are continuing to investigate the triple shooting in the 1700 block of East Main Street that killed a 30-year-old man, who was found in the street, as well as a 19-year-old woman and a 21-year-old woman found in a nearby apartment.
“It shows you nowadays it doesn’t have to be dark for something to happen,” said Cindy Arthur, who was working at the Royal Donut on East Main. “Anything can happen. You can walk to your mailbox.”
“It doesn’t surprise me at all.”
Police officers responded to a report of shots fired and a man shot in the roadway at about 10:15 a.m. Sunday. Further investigation discovered the two women shot to death in a duplex apartment at 1707 E. Main St., which is next door to Danville Fire Station No. 4.
Larry Thomason, police spokesman, said this morning detectives are continuing to work on leads in the case.
No arrests have been, and he could not comment on any sort of motive in the triple shooting.
The murder is the first homicide this year for Danville and the second in four months in the city. Thomason said it’s the first triple shooting he can remember in Danville’s history.
Autopsies were scheduled for this morning on all three victims. The names of the victims had not been released this morning, as the coroner’s office still was contacting family members of the deceased.
Danville resident Bill Crouch said he’s watched the east end of Danville get worse and worse in the last two years.
Nonetheless, incidents like Sunday’s shooting won’t prompt him to lock himself inside.
“It doesn’t curtail me from doing things and going places, but you just keep more of an eye out of what’s going on around you,” he said. “You look over your shoulder once in while.”
“It think it’s real bad when something like that happens during the daytime,” said James Van Pelt, a longtime resident sitting with Crouch at Royal Donut. “I was surprised.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it’s not right something like that happens.”
Elissa Williams, who lives just a block from where the shooting took place, said she’ll be a little more careful now.
But that’s all.
“It was a little shocking, but I’m not worried about it,” she said. “It can happen anywhere. This stuff happens.
“I don’t bother anybody, so there’s no reason for them to bother me.”
