Late on Saturday night, March 9, 2019, the quiet along the 2600 block of Ballentine Boulevard in Norfolk was broken by reports of gunfire. Responding officers arrived just before 11 p.m. and found Lorenzo Antwoine Roberts, 40, a Black man, outside with life-threatening gunshot wounds. Medics pronounced him dead at the scene, and detectives said they were still working to understand why it happened, with no motive or circumstances publicly released in the first days of the investigation.
The shooting landed close to the shelter Outreach for Christ, a place known for open doors and second chances, and the closeness made the violence feel even more senseless to people nearby. As daylight came, the loss spread outward—into the neighborhood, into the shelter community, and into the family now trying to put words to the absence. Roberts’ mother told local reporters he had been out celebrating his birthday, and her questions—who would do this, and why—hung in the air as she described the way he used to steady her life when it felt like it was tipping.
In the wake of the killing, police asked anyone with information to come forward through the Norfolk Crime Line or the P3 Tips app. While the investigation moved behind the scenes, the public details stayed spare: the time of the calls, the stretch of Ballentine Boulevard, the arrival of officers, and the finality of a scene that ended in a death on the pavement.
Four days later, authorities announced an arrest and named a suspect. Eugene Johnson Jr., 43, of Norfolk was charged with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Investigators said Johnson was arrested at Miami International Airport after a multi-jurisdictional fugitive investigation that involved the Norfolk Police Department along with the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force and U.S. Customs and Border Protection—an urgent, far-reaching search that ended at a major travel hub rather than in a quiet neighborhood.
But the case did not move forward in a straight line. Court records cited by local reporting indicated the charges against Johnson were nolle prossed on July 25—meaning the prosecution discontinued the case at that time rather than carrying it through to a verdict. Under Virginia’s own criminal-history guidance, a nolle prossed disposition is not a conviction, even though it can leave a case’s story unresolved for families still waiting for clarity.
