VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Four co-defendants in the March 26th Oceanfront shooting listened and watched hours of evidence inside a Virginia Beach courtroom on Thursday.
Three separate shootings happened at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront on March 26th and left several people injured, but prosecutors only focused on the first shooting on 20th Street and Atlantic Avenue.
“There has been much said about this alleged incident before this hearing, but I think now that we’ve seen the actual evidence, I don’t think this is all that it was cracked up to be,” explained Attorney Andrew Sacks.
Ahmon Adams, Devon Dorsey, Jr., Nyquez Baker, and Raswell Steverson face charges for the first oceanfront shooting on March 26th. Andrew Sacks is representing Dorsey.
“We think we are on the road to being acquitted,” said Sacks.
Two people who got shot that night testified, and said they don’t know who pulled the trigger.
One of the victims said she initially thought she had a sprained ankle until she saw blood and a bullet hole through her jeans.
“Nobody knows and nobody can match that to our client. There was a lot going on,” explained Sacks. “I think frankly it’s just one of those situations that I’m not sure they will ever be able to say who is responsible for that. We can say our client was the victim, not the aggressor.”
Police say a total of eight people were shot in that one incident and believe it’s gang-related.
“There’s no evidence it’s gang-related on our part, it appears to be there were some people from a gang from another city who were stirring up trouble at the oceanfront and my client was a victim of that,” said Sacks.
All the charges against the four men were certified by a judge. It now heads to a grand jury.
Dorsey, Baker, and Adams face the following charges:
- 4 malicious wounding charges
- 1 use of a firearm
- 1 felony reckless handling of a firearm
Steverson faces the following charges:
- 4 malicious wounding
- 1 use of a firearm
- 1 possession of a firearm by a felon
Two people died in two other shootings at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront that night. Investigators believe a stray bullet killed 29-year-old Deshayla Harris. A Virginia Beach police officer shot and killed 25-year-old Donovon Lynch.
Below are testimony notes from victims, detectives, and officers who were on the scene that night.
(1) A Virginia Beach Detective:
- She showed surveillance video from 19th and Atlantic Street.
- You can see a man shooting in a crowd after an altercation.
- She also showed a camera from 20th Street. In the video, you can hear several shots fired. You hear someone yelling, “you got shot”
(2) A shooting victim:
- The victim said he was walking with friends on 20th Street at the oceanfront.
- He said he heard gunshots and started to run. That’s when he said he was shot in the foot.
- He waited about 10-15 minutes in his car before going to the hospital.
(3) A shooting victim:
- She said she saw people running so she started to run.
- She hid by a place called Nightmare Manison and when she stepped out to run, a bullet hit her in the ankle.
- She said she didn't know she was shot. Her ankle felt numb and she thought she sprained her ankle.
- She realized she was shot after seeing blood and a hole in her jeans.
- She now deals with nerve problems and gets random pain in her ankle.
(4) VB police officer:
- He responded to a shots fired call on 20th Street.
- He said people were running everywhere.
- He was wearing his body camera. In the video, you see a lady crying.
- The officer said the woman had a single gunshot wound in her back.
(5) VB police officer:
- He responded on his bike since he is part of the bike patrol at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.
- He said he came in contact with a woman who was shot in the foot.
- Through body-camera video, the court watched the officer help the woman take off her shoe. He applied a turnicate.
- The victim goes, “why would someone do this.”
(6) VB Sergeant:
- He responded to help a female shot in the back.
- He said another officer helped.
- That sergeant then said he went on to establish a crime scene.
- He said more people than usual were at the oceanfront that night.
- He said it was hard to establish and preserve a crime scene because of the number of people at the Oceanfront.
- He then heard about the second shooting, so he responded to that shooting.
- He also said he responded to the officer-involved shooting.
- He said more than ten guns were taken from all three incidents
- He said several firearms were also found on the ground.
(7) VB police officer
- He testified that he met an officer who had one of the suspects on the ground at gunpoint.
- He said he took Ahmon Adam’sinto custody. He searched him and put him in the back of a police car.
(8) VB Detective
- His job was to try and identity two people in the surveillance video.
- He said he was doing some investigating before this shooting, which made him search Instagram.
- He said some of the defendants, in this case, were being monitored through Instagram for a few months.
- As investigators searched for suspects, using the surveillance cameras at the oceanfront, the detective testified he saw the same man wearing the exact same outfit video chatting with an inmate in jail hours before. He said that is how he tracked one of the suspects down.