Ravon Simone Mays was 31 when she was fatally shot on May 6, 2021, while working at the OYO Hotel on South Crater Road in Petersburg, Virginia. Police responded to a call and found Mays dead on the hotel premises, and a homicide investigation was opened.

Three months later, in August 2021, authorities arrested 21-year-old Franklin Jerome Coleman, Jr., of Petersburg. He was charged with first-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and was held without bond. At trial a witness who had been with Mays testified that a man identifying himself as Whoad came looking for her; Mays went outside to meet him shortly before the shots were fired. The jury convicted Coleman of first-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, discharging a firearm in public, and solicitation to alter or destroy evidence, and the conviction was later affirmed on appeal.

The motive for Mays’ killing has not been explained. Does anyone who knew Ravon or was in that area on May 6, 2021, have information that could add to the record?