Michael Anthony Smith

Michael Smith, a 54-year-old Black man, was fatally shot on Saturday night, June 4, 2016, in Petersburg, Virginia. Late that evening, police were called into the 600 block of Virginia Avenue after reports came in of a man down on the sidewalk, and they arrived to find Smith suffering from a gunshot wound to the torso.

He was rushed to Southside Regional Medical Center, but the injury was too severe. Police said he died about an hour after he was found.

In the immediate aftermath, investigators could not say what led to the shooting, and the circumstances around how Smith ended up wounded on the sidewalk were still unclear. Detectives were described as working to determine what exactly happened.

No suspects were publicly identified in the available report, and no arrests were announced in connection with Smith’s death at that time.