On a cold evening in Roanoke, Virginia, the life of 28-year-old Michael Lee Nance, a Black male known affectionately as 'Mike,' was cut short. On January 17, 2017, police responded to a call in the 2300 block of Staunton Avenue NW and found Nance inside his vehicle with a gunshot wound to his abdomen. He was still able to speak with officers when they arrived. Paramedics rushed him to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries later that evening. Investigators determined the shooting actually occurred in the 1800 block of Staunton Avenue and was connected to drug activity.
The investigation quickly led to two 19-year-old suspects. The morning after the shooting, police arrested Michael Antonio David Jr. at his home and charged him with second-degree murder. Detectives also secured a second-degree murder warrant for another 19-year-old, Markeith O'Shea Bryson Jr., and asked for the public's help in locating him. The case, however, took a significant turn a few months later. In April 2017, the second-degree murder charge against Michael Antonio David Jr. was dropped. The reasons for the dismissal of the charge were not publicly disclosed by the Roanoke General District Court.
Following the dropped murder charge, David Jr. faced other legal troubles. In 2018, he pleaded guilty to federal gun and drug charges stemming from a traffic stop that occurred in July 2016, prior to Nance's death. During that incident, he fled from police, who later found crack cocaine, a loaded gun, and ammunition in his possession.
The path to justice in Michael Lee Nance's case remained unclear as the charge against the second suspect, Markeith O'Shea Bryson Jr., was also dismissed in April 2017. Years later, in a separate and unrelated incident on December 1, 2025, a man identified as Markieth O. Bryson Jr. was shot and killed by law enforcement in Roanoke after he fled a traffic stop and allegedly produced a weapon. This event marked a final, tragic end to a life that was once intertwined with the investigation into Nance's death, leaving lingering questions in the community.
