RICHMOND — Gunfire killed a person here Thursday morning, the third shooting death in less than a week after nearly five months without one.

Richmond police spokesman Lt. Felix Tan confirmed that a male police believe is an adult died at the scene in the 200 block of S. 15th Street. Police did not say how many times he’d been shot.

Police were called to the scene around 9:40 a.m., and the man was “outside on the ground,” Tan said.

“It doesn’t appear to be a drive-by,” Tan said. “It doesn’t appear it happened inside anywhere. It was outside.”

The killing is the city’s third since Saturday. Once reputed as one of the Bay Area’s most dangerous cities, Richmond hadn’t experienced a shooting death since Nov. 14.

That stretch ended Saturday night when a 20-year-old Antioch man was shot to death in the 1000 block of S. 55th Street.

Two days later, a 29-year-old Richmond man died in a shooting in the 4900 block of Harnett Avenue.

Even before Sunday, city leaders were edgy about when the silence would end. Now that it has, some are sounding an alarm for increased vigilance.

“We cannot afford to be complacent,” Mayor Tom Butt said in a statement released by his office Wednesday. “Just as we honor our recent successes and the immense efforts of our residents, we must make every effort to foster an environment where tensions are resolved without violence.”

Butt said Wednesday night by email that he felt the need to put out the statement because the first two homicides generated a huge social media response among those in the city.

“The homicides generated hundreds of postings on Nextdoor and Facebook, some asking what the mayor or Richmond Police Department are doing about them, or why we haven’t made any statement,” Butt said. “I want people to know that we are engaged and take this seriously. We obviously can do better.”

In his statement to the community, Butt pointed out the work of police to gain leads on the killings, and credited community organizations such as the Office of Neighborhood Safety, Operation Ceasefire and the RYSE Center for meeting the needs of the individuals involved and for trying to resolve whatever conflict may have sparked the outburst of violence.

“I think it’s important to reinforce the crucial role the community can play both in preventing and solving homicides,” Butt said in the email. “Anyone who knows people who carry guns should be letting the RPD or ONS know about it.”

The nearly five months without a homicide marked the longest on record in the city, which has kept statistics since the early 1970s.

Fifteen people were killed within the city limits last year, capping a three-year spell that saw 61.

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