NORFOLK — A city man has been charged with the murder of a Norfolk teenager who was shot to death two days before his 18th birthday.
Police say 18-year-old Akail J. Allen, of the 800 block of Whitaker Lane, shot and killed Deshawn Spencer on April 24. Spencer was pronounced dead at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital less than an hour after he was shot outside of his Campostella home in front of his girlfriend, brother and friends.
Spencer’s mother, LaTonya McKee, said she was in the living room of their home on Wilson Road around 11 p.m. when she heard between five and 10 shots ring out.
“I just heard shots. Then my middle baby … telling me to get up, somebody shot his brother,” McKee said during an April interview with Southside Daily.
Spencer was two days away from his 18th birthday, which he’d planned to celebrate with friends and family at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.
Spencer’s family described him as a sweet and loving teenager who was well known in the Campostella neighborhood where he’d grown up. He took care of his mother, who is on dialysis, by cleaning the house and cooking meals.
Allen has been charged with second-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and gang participation. He was already in jail on a different matter when he was charged. He remains in the Norfolk City Jail without bond.
