In the quiet evening of December 5, 2021, the life of 19-year-old Daniel Ny'Sheyr Wharton was tragically cut short. A promising sophomore majoring in Computer Engineering at Virginia State University, he was visiting a friend at the University Apartments at Ettrick, an off-campus housing complex in Petersburg, Virginia, when he was shot. First responders found him with gunshot wounds just before 8 p.m. and transported him to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
Wharton was a graduate of Hayfield Secondary School in Alexandria and was remembered as a loving son and a devoted father to his two young sons, Rome and Yasir. He was known for his dedication to his studies, maintaining his position on the Honor Roll throughout his school years, and for his entrepreneurial spirit, with many business ideas he hoped to set in motion to provide for his children.
The Virginia State University community was left devastated by the loss of one of their own. The university's president, Makola M. Abdullah, expressed deep sadness, calling the incident a tragedy in every sense of the word and a painful loss of a young life to gun violence. While the university and local community mourned, the Chesterfield County Police, in conjunction with the Virginia State University Police, began their investigation into the homicide. They assured the public that they believed it to be an isolated incident.
A breakthrough in the case came when a suspect, 21-year-old Isaac Amisa, also a student at Virginia State University, turned himself in to the authorities. Amisa, a resident of Northern Virginia, was subsequently arrested and faced charges of murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He was held without bond. The motive for the shooting remained unclear, and Wharton's mother expressed her shock and confusion, stating she had no idea why her son was killed. The arrest brought a small measure of relief to a grieving family preparing for their first holiday season without their beloved Daniel.
