RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A day ahead of New Year's Eve, Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards renewed the department's warnings against ringing in the New Year with celebratory gunfire. The troubling trend continues to put innocent lives at risk year after year. "I think we've grown accustomed to it, but we shouldn't," Edwards said during a press conference at the Richmond Police Headquarters on Tuesday, Dec. 30. According to Edwards, officers received 84 reports of random gunfire last New Year's Eve. It's a slight decrease from the 92 calls they received the year before. However, Chief Edwards explained that these calls are often underreported because it's become commonplace. Over the last two years, Edwards said five people have been convicted of recklessly shooting on New Year's Eve. Those convictions include the arrests of two men back in 2023, who police say shot into the air in the city’s East End near Coalter Street. Willie Hunter has lived in the neighborhood for 15 years and says he worries for the children in the community whenever people make the dangerous decision to randomly shoot in the air. "You got a lot of kids out here, and we really don't like the gunfire, because you never know where a bullet might end," Hunter said. "Sometimes it's scary... they need more force in this area because it's mostly teenagers that [go] around with these guns."  Celebratory gunfire also led to the death of 28-year-old La-tiyah S. Hood in 2020. Mateen B. Johnson was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting. Edwards said some arrests in these investigations were made after police followed up on leads. "Days afterwards we went back, looked at video, talk to witnesses, collected evidence, and were able to charge and convict individuals," Edwards said. Edwards said officers plan to use a number of investigative tools, including gunshot detection devices which the department began using this year. "It's been used not only to find where people are shooting, but more importantly - and what I'm really interested in - it's enabled us to quickly find victims of gun violence," Edwards said. Officials also reminded people who may witness celebratory gunfire, not to confront the person responsible but to instead call police. "Hopefully people will not be shooting guns in the air and discharging their weapons and celebrating, but if they do, our officers will be out there to make those arrests," Edwards said. ...read more read less