City of Hopewell

3304 Belmont Ave

9:21 PM

Gunshot

Murder-suicide

Breakup led to fatal Hopewell shooting / Affidavit details events leading to man shooting family and then himself
By Mark Bowes
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Wednesday,November 5, 2008

HOPEWELL

Brandon Gibbs shot his girlfriend and two members of her family, killing one, after his girlfriend told him she no longer wanted him in her life, according to court documents.
The couple argued for 90 minutes about their impending split before Gibbs, 21, of Norfolk pulled out a .38-caliber pistol and “threatened to hit her in the eye and shoot her if she did not want him in her life,” according to an affidavit for a search warrant filed in Hopewell Circuit Court.

Moments before Gibbs opened fire inside the home at in the 3300 block of Belmont Avenue, he told his girlfriend, Yamesha Williams, to “come into the living room so I can tell all your peeps,” which is slang for people, the affidavit says.

As her family apparently gathered, Gibbs asked Williams if her decision was final, and he began shooting when she again told him that “she did not want him in her life any longer if he was going to Norfolk.”

“Stay in Norfolk,” she said.

Williams and another relative were shot in the face; both were flown by Medflight helicopter to VCU Medical Center. A third shooting victim, Teresa Williams, 40, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gibbs then fatally shot himself in the head. After police arrived, officers found a chrome .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver in Gibbs’ possession; four expended rounds were in the cylinder, the affidavit says.

After being shot, Yamesha Williams told investigators that her “baby’s daddy” - Gibbs - had shot her and her family, the affidavit says.

Williams is recovering from her wounds and has been released from the hospital, said Hopewell police Lt. Joe Sumner. The other surviving relative, whom police have not identified, is still hospitalized, Sumner said.

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Two dead, two wounded in shooting / Police say dispute between man, girlfriend triggered gunfire at residence
By Mark Bowes
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Saturday,November 1, 2008

HOPEWELL - Police are investigating why a man shot his girlfriend and two of her relatives, killing one, before fatally shooting himself inside a home on the city’s west side.

Investigators say a domestic dispute between the man and his girlfriend triggered the gunfire Thursday evening, but it was unclear yesterday what they were fighting about.

Police declined to release the shooter’s name until his relatives could be notified. The person he killed was identified as Teresa Williams, 40, of Hopewell, a relative of the girlfriend.

Police were withholding the girlfriend’s name, along with the name of the second relative who was shot. Both suffered critical injuries but were expected to survive, Hopewell police Lt. Joe Sumner said yesterday.

Sumner gave this account of the shooting:

Police responded to a house in the 3300 block of Belmont Avenue, off Courthouse Road, at 9:21 p.m. for a call of shots being fired. When officers arrived, they found four people with gunshot wounds. Two were pronounced dead at the scene; the others were taken to local hospitals.

The shooter, police have determined, got into an argument with his girlfriend, who lived at the house with other family members. At one point he pulled out a pistol and fired several shots, hitting his girlfriend and two relatives.

The shooter then killed himself.

Sumner confirmed there were several children inside the house at the time of the shooting but none of them were hurt. He described them as family members, declining to give their ages or gender.

Investigators yesterday were trying to sort out how many people lived at the house.

“We know the Williams’ family resides there, but as to exactly [who else] lives there, we’re not sure,” Sumner said.

Brandi Hassell, who lives with her grandmother next door, said she was in her room doing homework Thursday night when she heard a woman outside scream, “Somebody help me! Somebody help me!”

When Hassell looked out her window, she saw a young woman run from the house where the shooting occurred to a neighbor’s across the street. The woman banged on the front door before collapsing in the front yard, Hassell said.

Six young children ran out of the house after her, Hassell said. “Then, not five minutes after, there were like 12 cop cars out here and they blocked off the whole road.”

A trail of blood was still visible yesterday from the woman’s dash across the street. The neighborhood consists of eight tidy homes of mixed styles on a short, dead-end street.

Hassell said she never heard the gunfire.

“I thought somebody had gotten stabbed, because you’d think you’d hear a gunshot [from where she was sitting in the house],” she said. “I just heard her screaming.”

“It was really scary, because what if one of us had been outside and gotten shot? It was just crazy.”