Virginia Beach Police have connected two violent shootings in April—including a homicide on South Budding Avenue—to the same suspect, 18-year-old Josiah Spann of Virginia Beach.
Just after 2:30 a.m. on April 14, officers were called to the 200 block of S. Budding Ave. for reports of gunfire. They found a 17-year-old boy with multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to a hospital but died two days later, on April 16.
Later that same day, around 8:30 p.m., police were called to another shooting—this one on the 4100 block of Sassafras Ct. Two people were injured. One of them was Spann himself. He survived and was charged with several felonies: armed robbery, aggravated malicious wounding, shooting during a felony, and use of a firearm in a felony.
Now police say Spann was also behind the earlier S. Budding Avenue shooting. After weeks of work by detectives in the department’s Violent Crimes Unit, Spann is now also charged with first-degree murder and another count of using a firearm during a felony.
Police recovered a firearm at the Sassafras Ct. scene, later determined to be stolen. Using the ATF’s National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), they confirmed it was the same weapon used in the Budding Ave. killing.
Chief Paul Neudigate didn’t mince words about how the gun ended up in Spann’s hands.
“These incidents are a vivid reminder that stolen firearms are frequently used to commit violent crime,” said Chief Neudigate. “In this case, an individual visiting from South Carolina to our Resort Area realized once they returned home their firearm had been stolen out of their vehicle. That same firearm was subsequently used in the death of one individual and serious injury of another. Negligence enabled a criminal to carry out two horrendous acts of violence.”
No further details have been released about the 17-year-old victim.