City of Richmond

2519 Ford Ave, Richmond, VA

8:42 AM

Gunshot

Argument

2 cousins fatally shot hours apart / One killed leaving party at Hopewell’s VFW club, the other in Richmond
By Michael Martz And Luz Lazo
Times-Dispatch Staff Writers

Tuesday,February 5, 2008

Alfonzo and James Patillo went to one last party together and then died apart.
The two Richmond cousins were shot to death yesterday, one after leaving a Super Bowl party in Hopewell and the other in the front yard of his home in Richmond’s East End.

“This family is not just upset - this family is destroyed,” said Alicia Rasin, a Richmond community activist who knew both men and comforted their families yesterday.

Alfonzo “Fonz” Patillo, 30, was shot as he left a party with his cousin at the Veterans of Foreign Wars club in Hopewell yesterday about 1:40 a.m.

Hopewell police found him dead from a gunshot wound in the left temple. He was found in the parking lot, at

206 Winston Churchill Drive, after police received an emergency call from outside the club.

His death was Hopewell’s first homicide of the year.

James “Soul” Patillo, who would have been 38 on Saturday, came home to Richmond distraught and in grief early yesterday, Rasin said. He stepped outside his home at 2519 Ford Ave. - “for a breath of fresh air,” Rasin said - about 8:40 a.m., when he was shot to death.

Patillo fell between the front steps and the driveway of the one-story brick home, a block from Mechanicsville Turnpike. His death was the fourth homicide in Richmond this year.

Richmond police said yesterday that they are working with police in Hopewell on the homicides, though Hopewell police said at a brief news conference only that they were “sharing notes” with investigators in Richmond.

Information may be available from the medical examiner’s office this week on whether the two victims were shot with the same gun.

Hopewell police did not discuss the relationship between the two victims or release any information about the party they attended together on the last night of their lives.

In Richmond, police released a description of the suspect in James Patillo’s killing - a black male, mid-20s, about 6 feet tall, weighing 200 to 250 pounds, last seen wearing a black jacket with white-and-red patches or logos, and a black baseball hat.

Police say the killer may have left the area in a dusty, dark blue, four-door sedan.

“We have no idea whether the suspect is the same,” Hopewell Police Chief Steven D. Martin said when asked about the Richmond suspect.

Residents near the VFW said they were in shock to hear about the shooting. The neighborhood is safe, although they have heard of several incidents in and outside the club, some neighbors said.

The club, which is in the industrial corridor of Hopewell, holds parties regularly, residents said. Police said they have received few complaints about the establishment.

The two killings sent a ripple of shock through Richmond’s East End community, where both men lived. Alfonzo lived with his mother on North 38th Street, Rasin said, while James lived with an aunt at the house on Ford Avenue.

One woman who would not give her name said yesterday that she was coming to James Patillo’s house to comfort the family over Alfonzo’s death when she saw the crime scene.

Police sealed off Ford Avenue from Mechanicsville Turnpike to Bryan Street, and behind the Shop and Go store at the intersection of the turnpike and Fairfield Way, next to Patillo’s backyard.

Black screens shielded the body from public view while police collected evidence.

Rasin asked yesterday for people to take a moment and pray for the family.

A candlelight prayer vigil in memory of both cousins is planned for Thursday at 6 p.m. in front of James Patillo’s house on Ford Avenue.