On a quiet Sunday morning in Suffolk, Virginia, the life of Michael Byron Small, a 68-year-old Black/African American man, came to a tragic and violent end. It was June 18, 2023, when police received a distress call around 11:03 AM reporting a shooting inside a residence in the 6200 block of Apple Street.
Upon their arrival, officers discovered a male victim suffering from a single gunshot wound. Despite the efforts of emergency responders, he was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Initial police reports and subsequent news articles identified the victim as a 72-year-old man, creating a discrepancy with other sources that named him as the 68-year-old Michael Byron Small. Investigators quickly determined that the victim and the person responsible for his death were known to each other, suggesting the incident was not a random act of violence.
The suspect fled the scene before law enforcement arrived, reportedly driving a red Ford F-150 from the 2000s model year. However, the efforts of the Suffolk Police Department led to a swift arrest in the case. Russell Edwards, a 57-year-old man from the neighboring city of Portsmouth, was taken into custody.
Edwards was charged with several serious felonies, including second-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, possession of a firearm by a felon, and discharging a firearm within a dwelling house. Following his arrest, he was held without bond at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail. The investigation into the circumstances that led to the fatal shooting remains ongoing.
