A Charlottesville man died early Sunday morning after he was shot in front of a Prospect Avenue home in what police say is a homicide—the city’s third since May.
Otis Edward Scott, 27, was shot in the 700 block of Prospect Avenue at 2:16am, police said. By the time officers arrived to the scene, Scott’s friends had already rushed him to the University of Virginia Medical Center, where he died shortly after arriving, according to authorities. It was reported that Scott had attended a birthday party on Saturday afternoon with friends and family.
On May 10, Antonio Lamar Washington was stabbed to death at a birthday celebration at Al Hamraa Moroccan Restaurant on Second Street SE. Police subsequently arrested Taneak Quvaughn Turner, 19, on June 2 and charged him with first-degree murder and multiple other felonies. They also charged Antwan Terrell Roberts, 22, charged as a principal in the second degree to the first-degree murder and with malicious wounding in connection with the homicide, according to court records. Both men are scheduled to appear in court on August 7.
Scott’s murder took place a week after Avery Fernando Gray Jr. turned himself into the police as a suspect in the May 17 murder of Oscar Nathaniel Brown, the second homicide of the year. On June 16, police charged Brittany Deshawna Alamo, 29, with being an accessory after the fact in a felony and with destroying evidence to impede the investigation into Brown’s death, according to court documents. Two weeks after her arrest, Gray turned himself in on a first-degree murder charge.
One of Brown’s brothers told police he was standing 10 to 15 feet away when a man he later identified as Avery Fernando Gray Jr. walked up and shot Brown, according to a search warrant affidavit.
Police said the investigation into Scott’s death is ongoing, and ask anyone with information to contact the Charlottesville Police Department at (434)-977-3280 or Crime Stoppers (434)-977-4000.