On the night of April 9, 2020, the sound of gunshots broke the quiet in the 1900 block of Redgate Drive in Portsmouth, Virginia. When police officers arrived around 11:28 p.m., they discovered a man suffering from a gunshot wound to his torso. Medics pronounced him dead at the scene. The victim was later identified as 25-year-old Karlsten Baines, a resident of Portsmouth.
In the days following the shooting, Portsmouth police began their investigation and sought help from the public.
They identified four men as persons of interest in connection with Baines's death: 26-year-old Kievon A. Whitehurst, 26-year-old Antonie D. Speight, 27-year-old Jordan S. Hargrove, all from Portsmouth, and 23-year-old Ta'Juan D. Smith of Chesapeake. The police released physical descriptions of the men, noting that they all had multiple tattoos.
As the investigation continued, authorities made an arrest in the case. Maris Elliott was taken into custody and faced charges of first-degree murder and a gun crime for his alleged involvement in the fatal shooting of Karlsten Baines. In early 2022, the Portsmouth Police Department was also seeking another person of interest in the nearly two-year-old case, 27-year-old Dyrion Blankenship, in addition to still looking for Hargrove, Whitehurst, and Speight.
