On a Saturday afternoon in the Ocean View neighborhood of Norfolk, Virginia, the life of 37-year-old Robert Reynold Knight III came to a violent and tragic end. It was March 5, 2016, when police responded to reports of gunshots in the 1700 block of Kingston Avenue. Arriving at the scene, they discovered Knight inside a white minivan, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
He was rushed to a local hospital but succumbed to his injuries shortly after arrival.
Knight, a resident of Chester, Virginia, was remembered by his family as a devoted father to his two children. He was in Hampton Roads to attend to business matters related to a condominium he owned in the area. Described as a man who never carried any negativity, his loved ones were left bewildered as to why such violence found its way to him.
The investigation into the homicide quickly led to the identification of three suspects. Within a day of the shooting, police arrested two men, 22-year-old Elisha Hernandez of Newport News and 35-year-old Mondozer Masters of Hampton. Both men were charged with second-degree murder, attempted robbery, conspiracy to commit a robbery, and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. The motive for the fatal shooting was determined to be an attempted robbery. A third suspect, 28-year-old Tredell Cook of Hampton, was also identified, and warrants were issued for his arrest on the same charges.
In February of the following year, one of the men charged in connection with Knight's murder faced justice. Elisha Hernandez was sentenced to 33 years in prison for his role in the killing. At the time of Hernandez's sentencing, the cases against Mondozer Masters and Tredell Cook were still making their way through the court system. The final dispositions of the charges against Masters and whether Cook was ever apprehended remain publicly undisclosed.
