On the morning of April 25, 2019, a shooting in the BG’s Express parking lot on A. L. Philpott Highway in Martinsville, Virginia, left 55-year-old Mack Bradley Watkins dead. Emergency dispatch received a call at about 10:15 a.m.; deputies and public safety personnel responded and Watkins was pronounced dead at the scene after being shot in the chest. His body was sent to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the Western District of Virginia for autopsy.

Within about an hour investigators broadcast a vehicle description to area law enforcement. At roughly 11:25 a.m. a Virginia State Police trooper stopped that vehicle and took 75-year-old William Tyrone Matthews of Spencer into custody without incident. Authorities described the shooting as believed to be domestic in nature. Matthews was charged with first-degree murder, use of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a convicted violent felon, and was held at the Henry County Jail without bond.

Watkins, born October 27, 1963, had graduated from Patrick County High School and attended Patrick Henry Community College; he was remembered for gardening, helping others, and spending time with family. Does anyone have information about Watkins, his movements that morning, or the events at the gas station?