On Thanksgiving Day 2016, Richard Ellsworth Irvin, 42, was fatally shot outside the County Grill & Steakhouse in Yorktown after intervening at a pre-Thanksgiving party. Witnesses said Irvin, known as Byrd and remembered for his gentle nature, was trying to de-escalate a confrontation when he was shot in the northbound lanes of Route 17 and died at the scene. He was a lifelong Peninsula resident and a 1992 Menchville High School graduate.

Police identified Coleston Ryan Lewis, then 28, of Newport News, as a suspect; Lewis was arrested on November 30, 2016, and charged in connection with Irvin’s death. Testimony later described Lewis following Irvin after Lewis’s initial altercation and firing the fatal shot. The community is still left with the loss of a man who stepped in to help—did anyone witness the moments leading up to the shooting or know more about that night?