Police identify man shot to death in downtown Suffolk

SUFFOLK

A man was shot to death Monday afternoon as he drove through a downtown neighborhood and nearly hit a house as he lost control of his vehicle.

The man died moments later as he lay on the street, said Tracy White, a neighbor who rushed to help.

"I saw him take his last breath," White said. "It was terrible."

Police identified the victim as Jamar Deangelo Winfield of Liston Lane. Officers were searching for Mikell Deshawn Riddick, 17, of the 700 block of Ashley Ave. in connection with the shooting.

The fatal shots apparently came from someone in the street, but it was too early to speculate on a motive, said Lt. D.J. George, a police spokeswoman. Nothing suggests that anyone from the victim's vehicle fired at the shooter, she said.

The shooting happened shortly before 1:30 p.m. in the 400 block of Wilson St., near the intersection where Christopher Lamar Wilson, 34, was shot to death in September 2006.

After taking gunfire, the SUV in Monday's shooting careened onto a front yard, plowed through a row of bushes and crushed a chain-link fence before it got back on the road.

Back on the road, the vehicle turned left and stopped about a block away on Lee Street. That's where White saw the man lying on the street and one of his passengers yelling for help.

"He was screaming and hollering - 'Don't leave! Don't leave!' " White said.

Winfield had three passengers in his vehicle, but only one was still at the scene when police arrived, George said. Investigators had spoken to one of the missing passengers by late afternoon but were still looking for the other one, she said.

Staff writers Jim Washington and Cindy Clayton contributed to this article.

Dave Forster, (757) 222-5563, dave.forster@pilotonline.com