An argument over a girl may have turned deadly In the early morning hours of Sunday, July 12, 1992, a single argument shattered the quiet of a Virginia Beach neighborhood and ended the life of 15-year-old Reginald 'Reggie' Basnight Jr. A light-skinned Black male with green eyes and black hair, Reggie was standing in the 1200 block of Glyndon Drive at approximately 12:30 a.m. when the fatal encounter unfolded.
Witnesses later recounted that just before the sound of gunfire pierced the night, Reggie had been engaged in a heated
argument with an individual inside a small, white car. The subject of their dispute was reportedly a girl. The verbal altercation quickly escalated to deadly violence. A shot was fired, and Reggie was struck in the chest.
Responding to reports of gunfire, police and rescue personnel arrived to find the teenager lying in the doorway of a home, bleeding from the gunshot wound. Despite the immediate efforts of emergency responders to save him, Reggie succumbed to his injuries at the scene. At the time of his death, he was a student at Salem High School.
The death of Reginald Basnight Jr. was ruled a homicide, launching an investigation that has spanned decades. Although witnesses provided a description of the car involved, no arrests have ever been made in connection with his murder. The case remains an active cold case with the Virginia Beach Police Department, a painful and unresolved chapter for his family and the community.
