On June 15, 2021, 24-year-old Maalik Shaheed Payne was fatally shot in the 1500 block of North King Street in Hampton, Virginia. The shooting occurred in front of an apartment complex in the early hours of the morning when an exchange of gunfire left Payne grievously wounded; he died after being transported to a local hospital.

A second man, 46-year-old Jorge Luis Morales of Newport News, was also shot and taken to the same hospital with life-threatening injuries. Investigators identified Morales as a suspect; after he was dropped off at the hospital he was arrested and charged with murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a felon, and was held at the Hampton city jail. The motive and the specific circumstances of how the exchange began remain under investigation.

If anyone witnessed the shooting or has information about events that morning, please share what is known with the Hampton Police Division.