Nineteen-year-old Demonte Burgess has a history with Sixth Street S.E. Last August, he was arrested for trespassing on the 700 block, near the Charlottesville Redevelopment & Housing Authority’s public housing development, after local police asked him not to return to city housing. Now, Burgess is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Miguel Salazar, who was killed in January in the 1600 block of Sixth Street, S.E.—fewer than 10 blocks from Burgess’ previous arrest.
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Demonte Burgess, 19, faces a half-dozen charges in connection with the fatal shooting of Miguel Salazar in the Mountain View Mobile Home Park in January. |
Burgess, who is currently being held without bond in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, is also charged with robbery and malicious assault in connection with the wounding of Rafael Ayala. Both Salazar and Ayala were shot in the Mountain View Mobile Home Park near midnight on Friday, January 22, following what Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo described at the time as a “confrontation” with two black males. Ayala was wounded in the shoulder and treated at the University of Virginia Medical Center; Salazar died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Richmond resident Antonio Grooms was arrested in February and also charged with second-degree murder and assault in connection with the Mountain View incident. Both are scheduled to appear in Charlottesville General District Court on June 10 at 3pm.
A resident of the Mountain View park who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal from Mountain View’s management told C-VILLE last week, “We don’t know what happened, we just heard the shots.” The resident said that police responded within five to 10 minutes of the gunfire.
The resident also said that Manufactured Housing Enterprises (MHE), which manages Mountain View, installed a series of streetlights along the two roads that enter the park, albeit after the shooting took place. John Henry Jordan, Vice President of Operations for MHE, says the light installation took place during the last month, and was “already in the works” when the January shooting took place.
“We want to do everything we can to provide safe housing for our hardworking residents there,” says Jordan. A second resident, who recently moved into the park, said he had not heard about the January shooting or the subsequent arrests.
