A Saturday night domestic dispute in Axton, Virginia, ended with the death of 36-year-old Bryant Richard Robinson. On September 2, 2023, deputies responding to a call found Robinson inside a home on Irisburg Road with multiple gunshot wounds. A 59-year-old man, John Andrew Brooks, was on the front porch and taken into custody after reportedly confessing to shooting his boyfriend.

Warrants say the two had been drinking wine and smoking marijuana and that a verbal argument over a television show escalated into a physical fight that moved from the living room to the kitchen. Brooks told investigators Robinson began choking and hitting him, and that after a struggle he retrieved a revolver and fired three times when Robinson grabbed the barrel. Robinson’s body was sent to the Roanoke medical examiner for autopsy. Brooks was charged with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and held without bond.

Friends described Bryant as kindhearted, adventurous, a former flight attendant and bartender, and an advocate for gay and women’s rights. If anyone knew Bryant or witnessed the events on Irisburg Road that night, please come forward with information.