The killing in cold blood of Virginia State Police Special Agent Michael T. Walter on Friday evening in Richmond’s Mosby Court public housing community should give us all pause.

It’s not just because he was a law enforcement officer working to better a community plagued by crime, or the fact that he was killed without provocation.

The problem is the escalating lawlessness in a neighborhood that already has seen seven people succumb to homicide this year, including 15- and 16-year-old Taliek K. Brown and Mikkaisha D. Smoot, respectively, in late March. Nineteen others have been wounded by gunfire in Mosby Court since Jan. 1.

That someone would suddenly open fire on an officer of the law as he and a Richmond police officer stopped to inquire why a car was parked in the wrong direction is nothing short of astounding.

The collective tears and vigils of Mosby Court residents should send a clear S.O.S. to city leaders that help is urgently needed to combat the turbulent violence that rocks the public housing enclave of roughly 450 families.

“It really hurts to know that someone comes into your community to try and help and this happens to them,” Patricia Williford, president of the Mosby Court Tenants Council, told reporters.

What other notice or invitation is needed for Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney, Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority CEO T.K. Somanath, members of Richmond City Council and Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham to step in and help?

After the deaths of the teens, Mayor Stoney talked with the Free Press about the city leadership “exploring options” to reduce crime in public housing communities, including use of sonar technology for early detection of gunshots and their direction, and issuing photo IDs to residents and permits for their vehicles.

Asked about possibly closing off public access to Mosby Court to make it more safe like a gated community — not to keep people in, but to keep perpetrators out — Mayor Stoney nixed the idea.

“I don’t believe in locking down a community,” he told the Free Press. “If we treat people that way, we’ll get a reciprocal response.”

Many residents have said that much of the crime occurring in or nearby Mosby Court has been inflicted by outsiders, including people living elsewhere riding into Mosby in search of illegal drugs.

But we have seen few steps by city leaders and RRHA officials to effect change.

In the case of Special Agent Walter, however, a 27-year-old Mosby Court resident has been charged in connection with the shooting. This adds another layer of complexity in dealing with the problems within the public housing community.

From 2006 to March 2014, RRHA had its own police force created from the housing agency’s public safety office. But the dedicated security service was disbanded suddenly under a cloud of allegations, including one that the RRHA police force may have overstepped its legal authority in making certain arrests and another that officers misspent a federal grant.

During that time, the RRHA started an anti-crime initiative in the public housing communities in April 2011 after what it called a spate of “tragic incidents” at Hillside Court. “Tough on Crime: Standing for Safer Communities” was a collaboration between RRHA, the Richmond Tenants’ Organization, law enforcement and other community partners.

To kick it off, residents held a community march through Hillside Court in South Side. RRHA officials said the initiative was to promote and build crime-free and drug-free communities by improving communication with residents, stepping up community policing and supportive services for youngsters and families and enforcing leases.

We understand no strategy is foolproof or guaranteed to succeed. And crime, once tamped down, can rise again as residents change and outside factors change. We ask, however, whether it would be worth deconstructing those past efforts now that several years have elapsed. Are there lessons we could learn or programs we could tweak and employ now?

We urge Mayor Stoney, Mr. Somanath, Chief Durham, City Council members and the current and former heads of the city’s anti-poverty office to make a concerted effort to sit down with Ms. Williford, other members of the Mosby Court Tenants Council and concerned residents to listen closely and deeply to their dissection of the problems in Mosby Court and their suggestions for improvement.

The problems in Mosby require more than an official walk-through or drive-by. Our leaders and resident teams also should look at best practices in communities across the nation and come up with a list of ways to stem the tide of violence in Mosby Court and elsewhere.

It’s easy at times like these to simply advocate for a bigger police presence in the neighborhood. But we believe that’s shortsighted.

While stepped up police patrols may be helpful, it should only be temporary. No one wants to live — or feel like they live — in a police state. But everyone deserves to live in a decent and safe community.