In the early morning darkness of December 5, 2014, a car moved along Effingham Street near Duke Street in Portsmouth when gunfire suddenly tore into the vehicle, turning an ordinary ride into a catastrophe. The driver, Antonio J. Atkins, a 25-year-old Black / African American man, was struck and pronounced dead at the scene while the neighborhood around the intersection jolted awake to the aftermath.
Inside the car, the violence did not end with him.
Police said a woman riding with him was wounded and rushed to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital with serious injuries that were not considered life-threatening, and another man who was also inside the vehicle escaped without injury. In the first hours after the shooting, investigators had no motive to explain why the car had been targeted and no suspect to name, only the stark fact of a fatal ambush on a city street.
In the days that followed, grief spilled into public view as the community gathered to mourn and to demand change. Hundreds assembled at New Mount Olive Baptist Church and then marched back toward Effingham Street, ending the procession at the place where he was killed—an act of remembrance and a plea for the violence to stop. Even then, the message from investigators remained the same: there was still no suspect information to share, only requests for anyone who knew something to come forward.
Years later, the loss continued to echo through those who loved him, and the case remained unresolved. In later reporting, his mother described the killing as a drive-by shooting along Effingham Street and said the family still lacked answers and justice, with his shooter never identified publicly. As of those later updates, there were no publicly reported arrests, named suspects, charges, trials, or convictions connected to Antonio Atkins’ killing, and it continued to be described as a cold case.
