|
Richardson
Smith |
Fredericksburg police last night were looking for a teenager suspected in the city's first slaying this year.
Brandon Lee Smith, 19, of Fredericksburg is accused of shooting and killing 30-year-old Dasan Ka'Wila Richardson early yesterday. The death occurred at Mi Casa Restaurant in Central Park, where Richardson, also a Fredericksburg resident, worked as a bouncer, police said.
Smith is charged with first-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of a felony. A search for him yesterday in the Riverside Manor townhouse complex, off Fall Hill Avenue in the city, was unsuccessful.
According to police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe, Richardson was shot twice in the chest during an altercation at the front door of the restaurant about 1:15 a.m. Rescue workers treated him at the scene within minutes, but Richardson was pronounced dead at Mary Washington Hospital shortly after getting there. His wife met rescue workers at the hospital.
The shooting was apparently the result of Smith's being kicked out of the nightspot a short time earlier for being underage. Bledsoe said Smith returned about 10 minutes later with "four or five" friends and they got into an altercation with the bouncers. At some point, police said, Smith pulled out a gun and shot Richardson. It is not clear whether Smith had the gun all along or got it after being forced to leave the business.
Bledsoe said patrons were fleeing from the nightspot as police were arriving, but police got enough information to identify Smith as the suspect. A search warrant was obtained for a home in Riverside Manor, and the city's Special Equipment and Tactical Team went into the home. No one was there, Bledsoe said, but police did recover some evidence there as well as at the slaying scene.
Prior to the raid, police sent a reverse 911 message to residents in that area urging them to stay inside while police activity was under way. Another call was made later telling residents to return to business as usual.
Richardson, a native of Hawaii who was 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed more than 300 pounds, also had a Riverside Manor address, but Bledsoe said there is no evidence that he and Smith knew each other.
The investigation is continuing, and Bledsoe said it is possible that charges will be filed against others involved in the disturbance.
Smith is no stranger to city police. According to court records, he has two trials scheduled next month in Fredericksburg Circuit Court on marijuana and cocaine distribution charges.
Keith Epps: 540/374-5404
