In the early evening of July 8, 2020, a violent encounter on a street in Hampton, Virginia, claimed the life of 23-year-old Jayquan Tyre Fenner. Fenner was driving his vehicle on Todds Lane when he was struck by gunfire. The impact of the gunshot caused him to lose control of his car, which then crashed into a pole at the intersection of Todds Lane and Wellington Drive. Emergency services were called to the scene around 6 p.m. for what was initially reported as a car accident.
Upon arrival, they discovered Fenner inside the vehicle, not just injured from the crash, but suffering from a fatal gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The investigation into the death of Jayquan Fenner moved swiftly. What was at first a chaotic scene of a car crash soon turned into a homicide investigation as the cause of death became clear. The Hampton Police Division began piecing together the events that led to the shooting. Their preliminary findings indicated that Fenner had been targeted while he was driving, leading to the deadly sequence of events. The motive for the shooting was not immediately released to the public as investigators worked to identify who was responsible for the brazen act of violence that had unfolded on a public street.
Within days of the fatal shooting, the focus of the investigation narrowed to a single suspect. On July 13, 2020, the Hampton Police Division announced the arrest of Jokwar Rashad Jones, a 23-year-old resident of Hampton. Jones was taken into custody and faced a string of serious charges in connection with Fenner's death. These charges included second-degree murder, discharging a firearm from a vehicle, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, shooting at an occupied vehicle, reckless handling of a firearm, and discharging a firearm in public. Following his arrest, Jones was held at the Hampton City Jail. The arrest brought a sense of resolution to the immediate shock of the incident, though the legal proceedings were just beginning to unfold.
