Prosecutors have dropped charges against two men accused of opening fire outside a Portsmouth Wawa in May, a shooting that left 17-year-old Ty'Vion Lashawn Smith dead, after evidence suggested the men fired to protect themselves. Kavi Christopher Santokie, who was 18 at the time, and Tracy Lashawn Lewis had faced weapons charges stemming from gunfire that erupted in the store's parking lot just after midnight on May 10.
A Chaotic Night at the Pumps
According to The Virginian-Pilot, Santokie and Lewis were sitting in the backseat of a white Ford sedan parked at the Wawa in the 1200 block of Frederick Boulevard when surveillance video captured three people in black sweatshirts crossing the street toward the car with guns drawn. Lewis ran toward the back of the store as one of the approaching individuals fired at him, the paper reported, and the sedan then made a U-turn to follow him as its passenger-side rear window was shattered by an apparent bullet.
Police believe Santokie fired from the backseat during the chaos, per the same account. Investigators later found a single cartridge on the sedan's floorboard. Customers inside the Wawa told officers that everyone was yelling and ducking as the shots rang out, while drivers at the gas pumps dropped beneath the pumps before speeding off.
The Victim and the Investigation
Officers found Smith dead at the scene with a gunshot wound to the head and a Taurus 9mm handgun beneath his legs — a weapon an ATF trace later linked to a man in Georgia, according to the report. Sentara Norfolk General contacted police within three hours of the shooting after treating a 21-year-old woman for a gunshot wound to her leg.
The woman driving the white sedan, dressed in a pink sweatsuit, told detectives she had picked up her boyfriend and two men she didn't know around 10 p.m. and driven the group to Waterside in Norfolk before heading to the Wawa, the outlet's reporting states. Smith's family also gave detectives a social media video alleging Lewis had robbed Smith of several items months earlier, according to the police report cited by the paper.
From Manhunt to Arrest
In the days after the shooting, WAVY reported that detectives were searching for two men connected to the homicide. Police identified Santokie and Lewis as persons of interest on May 26, and callers soon identified them, per court records referenced in the reporting. WTKR named the pair as persons of interest that same day.
By June 2, the men were in custody. Daily Press reported that Santokie, of Chesapeake, turned himself in, and that both men faced charges of possessing a machine gun for an aggressive purpose, shooting from a vehicle to endanger persons, and willfully discharging firearms in public places. The outlet's report noted the pair had been seen on surveillance footage in relation to the homicide, though it listed Lewis's age as 30 at the time of arrest — a discrepancy with the Virginian-Pilot's account that places Lewis at 20 years old at the time of the shooting. Police said they had not recovered any of the other firearms used in the shooting.
Defense Attorneys Point to Self-Defense
Attorney Althea Mease urged Judge Elliott Moody to consider the circumstances surrounding the confrontation, arguing that video clearly showed Santokie and Lewis acted in self-defense, the Virginian-Pilot reported. Attorney Sanita Swift said the footage showed her client and the others in the car were ambushed, adding that the case had always been one of self-defense.
The dismissal echoes another Virginia case detailed by WTOP, in which prosecutors dropped all charges against Manassas mother LaToya Crabbe after new evidence backed her claim that she killed her husband in self-defense. No additional court filings or prosecutor statements have been made public explaining the exact legal basis for dropping the charges against Santokie and Lewis.
