A 21-year-old Virginia Beach man was sentenced to six months in jail this week after pleading guilty to crashing into 16-year-old Tremayne “TJ” Nicholson Jr. as the teen rode an e-bike, then driving away before eventually returning to the scene with his mother. Nicholson, a rising junior and varsity football player at Salem High School, suffered life-threatening injuries in the crash and died at a local hospital days later.
According to The Virginian-Pilot, Josiah Johnson-Owens was driving near Lynnhaven Parkway and Princess Anne Road when his vehicle struck Nicholson, who was crossing the street against traffic on an e-bike. People at the scene rushed to help Nicholson and called 911, prosecutors said, but Johnson-Owens kept driving, continuing for about three miles before he stopped. The Virginian-Pilot's report says Nicholson died two days after the crash in a local hospital, though a separate July account from pilotonline.com put his death three days after the collision, on July 11 — a discrepancy that has not been resolved in available records.
Police previously said officers responded around 9:45 p.m. on July 8 to the 2000 block of Lynnhaven Parkway after a report of a crash involving a vehicle and a person on a bike. Officers arriving on scene found the victim with life-threatening injuries, and the vehicle had already left the area, according to the earlier pilotonline.com account of the crash.
A Call Home, Then a Return to the Scene
After parking the car, Johnson-Owens called his mother, who urged him to go back to where the crash happened, according to the Virginian-Pilot's account of the case. She also called the police. Johnson-Owens and his mother returned to the crash site together, where officers interviewed and then arrested him.
At a hearing Wednesday, Johnson-Owens told the judge he was in shock and panicked, the same source reported. The sentencing report spells his surname “Johnson-Owens.” He was charged with hit-and-run resulting in serious injury.
Virginia law is explicit about what a driver must do in that moment. Under Virginia Code § 46.2-894, a driver involved in a crash where someone is killed or injured must immediately stop as close to the scene as possible without blocking traffic.
Remembering a Salem High Football Player
Nicholson was a rising junior at Salem High School who played on the school's varsity football team, according to social media posts from family and his coach cited in the Virginian-Pilot's reporting. His mother, Kellee Nicholson, started a GoFundMe page for her son and described him as a hardworking, kind-hearted teen who was always willing to help others.
A Broader Reckoning Over E-Bike Safety
The crash that killed Nicholson arrived amid growing concern in Virginia Beach over e-bike collisions. Police data examined by dailypress.com identified 17 e-bike-related crashes reported in July and August of last year, though the department cautioned it did not have a formal method of tracking such incidents, meaning other crashes may not have been captured. Of the crashes that were logged, seven happened between 3 and 6 p.m. and five more between 9 and 11 p.m.
Virginia Beach City Council discussed e-bike regulation, and the city had an e-bike work group. Other crashes cataloged in the same dataset included a woman hospitalized with serious injuries after being hit while riding an e-bike at Nimmo Parkway and General Booth Boulevard in August 2025, and a boy taken to the hospital with significant injuries after an e-bike crash in a parking lot that same month, in which no charges had been filed at the time.
