Rite-Aid slaying
Argument over smoking preceded Rite Aid shooting
Quintin Washington shot and killed another man in a drugstore parking lot on West Broad Street after Washington started yelling at the victim for smoking in front of Washington’s 6-year-old son, a Richmond prosecutor said Thursday in court.
In a bond hearing in Richmond Circuit Court, the prosecutor, Tania Stark, and defense attorney David Lassiter offered very different accounts of what led to the death of Marquis J. Richardson.
Judge Richard D. Taylor Jr. denied the defendant’s request for bond.
Lassiter argued that Richardson, 18, had brought the gun to the scene and produced it during the encounter with Washington. Lassiter said that his client, a 28-year-old truck driver, had wrestled the weapon from Richardson and shot him in self-defense.
The killing occurred on the evening of Oct. 3 in the parking lot of the Rite Aid at West Broad and Belvidere streets near Virginia Commonwealth University’s Monroe Park campus where Washington had gone to pick up his son.
Richardson had accompanied the mother of Washington’s son to the parking lot to drop off the boy to Washington when authorities say a dispute involving a cigarette escalated in front of witnesses.
Stark told the judge that the mother of Washington’s child — after she arrived at the Rite Aid with her son and Richardson — took the boy to Washington’s car. Stark said that Richardson stayed behind in the passenger seat of the vehicle in which he and the woman had arrived, smoking a cigarette.
Washington, spotting the cigarette, approached Richardson aggressively and started cursing and yelling at him for smoking in front of Washington’s asthmatic son, Stark said.
Stark said witnesses heard a “metal tapping sound” and saw Washington with a gun standing outside the vehicle, while Richardson was still inside. Washington fired a few shots, prompting Richardson to try to escape the vehicle, Stark said.
She said Washington started walking back toward Rite Aid and then turned and took a few steps before he unloaded more rounds into the car, killing Richardson.
“Not only did the 6-year-old boy witness the incident, he was in the line of fire,” Stark said. “The only evidence of self-defense is the defendant’s statement.”
Stark added that the mother of Washington’s son had never seen Richardson with a gun.
But Lassiter said Washington did not come to the scene with a gun. He said that Richardson, who had a criminal record for crimes committed as a juvenile, had brought the weapon and that Washington was lucky enough to take it to defend himself.
Lassiter also said his client has been in little serious trouble, citing only a marijuana-related conviction more than six years ago.
Washington’s father, Reese Washington Sr., testified that his son is a hard worker and loving father. The senior Washington said the charges against his son have shocked the family.
“My son is a good guy,” Reese Washington said. “He’s a person trying to do something with his life.”
It was not immediately clear when Washington will appear next in court.
He initially was charged with voluntary manslaughter in Richardson’s death. He later was indicted on a charge of first-degree murder.
Richardson’s criminal record includes convictions in Richmond Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court on charges of eluding police, failure to stop at the scene of an accident and two counts of grand larceny.
In 2010, nearly a dozen charges were dropped against Richardson in Richmond Circuit Court, including multiple counts of attempted murder and attempted robbery.
Originally written By REED WILLIAMS, Richmond Times-Dispatch
