In the early morning hours of May 17, 2014, the life of 28-year-old Jonathan Bradley Coles, a Black male from Hampton, Virginia, was tragically cut short. Just before 5:30 a.m., officers in the area of Dogwood Street were flagged down and alerted to a shooting that had occurred near Newport News Avenue and Shell Road. Responding to the scene, they found evidence of the shooting and soon discovered Jonathan inside a residence, the victim of a fatal gunshot wound to his upper torso. His mother, Margaret Eaddy, would later recount the horrific detail that he was shot as he was coming out of the door, suggesting his assailant had been lying in wait.
The investigation quickly zeroed in on a suspect: 25-year-old Kwaume Laray Edwards of Newport News. Edwards was no stranger to law enforcement, with a criminal history that included prior murder charges. In 2006, at the age of 17, he was arrested for the murder of Michael Tyler but was ultimately acquitted. Then, in 2011, he was charged in the killing of Ricky Calloway, Jr., but the case against him was not pursued by prosecutors. Now, he was wanted for the murder of Jonathan Coles and for the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Authorities issued a warning that he should be considered armed and dangerous. The pursuit of Edwards culminated in a tense standoff at an Extended Stay America hotel in Newport News, where he barricaded himself for nearly two hours before surrendering to police.
The legal proceedings that followed brought a measure of closure to Jonathan's grieving family. In a courtroom in August 2016, Kwaume Laray Edwards pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Jonathan Coles. He was sentenced to 43 years in prison, with 12 of those years to be actively served. For Jonathan's mother, who received the news of the sentencing on her birthday, it was a long-awaited gift of justice. She expressed her relief that Edwards would be off the streets and unable to inflict such pain on another family. The loss of her son spurred her to become an advocate against gun violence, vowing to fight for change in his memory and for the future of the four children he left behind.
