Bouncer
killed at city restaurant
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.
