In the late hours of a Tuesday in Portsmouth, Virginia, the life of 44-year-old Mantonio Bunch was tragically cut short. Just after midnight on February 28, 2017, police responded to a call on Portsmouth Boulevard and discovered Bunch with a gunshot wound to his stomach. He was rushed to a local hospital, but the injury proved fatal, and he died while receiving treatment.
The initial hours of the investigation yielded few answers, leaving a family to grapple with the sudden and violent
loss of a man they described as a problem solver who put others before himself. Bunch was a father to three children. His brother expressed profound grief and confusion, stating he couldn't imagine who would want to harm his sibling. A neighbor reported hearing a commotion that sounded like someone falling down a flight of stairs, but no gunshots.
Within days, the Portsmouth Police Department made an arrest in connection with the homicide. Herbert Jones, a 31-year-old man who was reportedly an acquaintance of Bunch, was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder. Bunch's family expressed a sense of relief that a suspect was no longer at large, though the arrest did little to explain the motive behind the killing. Family members indicated that Bunch and Jones were friends, deepening the mystery of what led to the fatal encounter. Court records revealed that Jones was a convicted felon who had previously served time for malicious wounding and weapons charges.
