PORTSMOUTH, Va. — A Portsmouth man pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing his father, a local Navy veteran, during a shooting inside his home five years ago.
Tommie Lamont Banks pleaded guilty in Portsmouth Circuit Court to Second Degree Murder, according to a news release from the city's Commonwealth's Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors say Banks and another family member went to the home of his father, 46-year-old Tommie Lamont Reynolds, early in the morning on August 14, 2018. After speaking and leaving, Banks is said to have returned to the home on Floyd Street, where Reynolds was alone.
Right after "multiple gunshots were heard coming from the living room," prosecutors say Banks was seen leaving the residence.
At the time of the shooting, Reynolds' wife told 13News Now that she discovered her husband wounded on the floor as she returned home from work.
“I saw him lying on the ground, full of blood, and I said, ‘Babe hold on, please breathe,’ and he just had this look on his face like, 'I’m gone, sorry,'” she said.
Medics pronounced him dead at the scene, according to police reports in 2018.
The family told 13News Now that Reynolds was originally from New Orleans and that he served as a cook in the Navy. The couple had three children together and seven grandchildren.
Banks, who was 26 at the time of the shooting, is scheduled to be sentenced on February 28, 2024.