In the late afternoon of September 18, 2022, a burst of gunfire shattered the quiet of a Norfolk, Virginia street, leaving a young man dying in the driver's seat of his car. Aaron Wayne Leach Jr., a 22-year-old male, was shot multiple times while sitting in his SUV on Creamer Road in the Bayview area. In a desperate attempt to flee his attacker, he crashed the vehicle into a parked car, but his injuries were too severe, and he succumbed to them at the scene.
The investigation into the
shooting quickly focused on a man who was not only present but also injured during the incident. Emilio Rodriquez-Lopez, who was 20 years old at the time, was found in a nearby home, tending to a gunshot wound to his abdomen. He initially claimed to have shot Leach in self-defense, alleging that Leach had tried to rob him. However, the narrative that unfolded through the police investigation painted a different picture, one of a drug transaction that had gone violently wrong. Rodriquez-Lopez, an acquaintance of Leach, had been in the front passenger seat of the SUV when he opened fire.
The case grew more complex as investigators learned that a third person, a friend of Rodriquez-Lopez who had been waiting nearby, also fired into the vehicle from outside the driver's window. Leach was caught in a crossfire, struck by bullets from both his passenger and from outside the car. In a strange twist, Rodriquez-Lopez was hit in the abdomen by 'friendly fire' from his own associate. As Leach tried to drive away, Rodriquez-Lopez rolled out of the wounded vehicle. No evidence ever surfaced to suggest that Leach was armed during the fatal encounter.
Following the investigation, Emilio Rodriquez-Lopez was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He pleaded not guilty and his case went to a jury trial. The first trial ended in a mistrial due to a medical emergency with a juror. A second jury, however, reached a verdict in February 2025. They found Rodriquez-Lopez guilty of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and of using a firearm in the commission of a felony. Subsequently, he was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison.
