July 18 marked a grim anniversary for Derek Holmes.
A year ago on that date, police found 22-year-old Kyonne Edwards, Holmes’ best friend and former football teammate from their time at Smithfield High School, shot to death at Jersey Park Apartments in town.
Holmes remembers the day beginning with the sound of his sister’s voice trying to wake him in the middle of the night.
“Something bad happened to Kyonne,” she told him, spurring him to rush out of bed, get into his car and drive to the crime scene.
There, Holmes learned Edwards wasn’t the only victim.
Edwards had lived with his girlfriend, 21-year-old A’Shoneya Williams, whom police also discovered deceased in the couple’s shared apartment. Both had been shot.
Smithfield Police believe the shootings to have occurred at approximately 11:30 p.m. on July 17. According to Police Chief Alonzo Howell, it’s the town’s first known double homicide and one that remains unsolved.
Police believe a single suspect to have entered the apartment, fired several shots, then fled on foot across West Main Street. But a security camera at the apartment complex wasn’t recording that night, so that’s where the trail ends.
“The challenges are similar to those of any other case: finding witnesses to what has occurred and trying to piece the puzzle together,” Howell said.
Edwards’ former football coach, Reginald Chavis, said he first met the 2019 Smithfield High graduate when Edwards was a standout freshman on the school’s junior varsity football team.
Chavis remembers Edwards, by then a junior on the varsity team, intercepting a pass to clinch a playoff game at the end of the 2017 season.
“He had a lot of grit,” Chavis said. At 5-feet-8-inches tall and 150 pounds “he was a small guy, but don’t let the size fool you, he wasn’t going to back down.”
Holmes said he’d grown up with Edwards since preschool, and had played football together for nearly as long. On and off the field, Edwards “was just solid, man, always had a big heart” Holmes said.
Edwards competed in the 2017 playoffs alongside fellow football standout Willie Drew, who graduated from Smithfield High a year ahead of Edwards and went on to play in college and professionally, signing an undrafted free-agent contract with the Carolina Panthers in April.
Edwards, unlike Drew, didn’t go to college.
“Probably should have, though,” said Holmes, who remembers his friend as “one of the smartest” and “one of the bravest” of his classmates at Smithfield High. Edwards more than once made the honor roll during his time at Isle of Wight County Schools.
Instead, Edwards secured a job at the Keurig Dr. Pepper manufacturing plant, currently slated for closure, on the outskirts of Windsor.
“He was still trying to figure himself out,” Holmes said.
Chavis agreed, recalling that Edwards “didn’t really know what he wanted to do” but definitely “wanted to make something of himself.”
Chavis described Edwards as a “respectful” student on and off the field who “never had a discipline issue.” He learned of the shooting by text message from one of his former “Packer Angels,” a group of student volunteers who helped out with the team.
“I hope they can find the individuals that are responsible for it,” Chavis said. “Just praying for his family; hopefully there’s closure.”
Holmes said Edwards had briefly introduced him to Williams when he started seeing her.
“She was nice,” Holmes said. “Didn’t know her much.”
Williams’ grandmother Teresina Lassiter described her granddaughter as “beautiful, brilliant, talented, big-hearted and selfless.”
“There is a killer out on the street. … I’ve said all I can say and prayed all I can pray,” Lassiter said.
Williams was a native of Suffolk, but grew up in Fairfax County, where Lassiter lives, according to Williams’ obituary.
“Now we must live without her,” Lassiter said. “It’s difficult, and I don’t know the solution for the violent times we are living in.”
Smithfield, a town of 8,500 residents, has averaged less than one murder or manslaughter case per year over the past five, according to Virginia State Police data. Prior to the deaths of Edwards and Williams, the last fatal shootings in the town limits occurred in 2021 and 2019. In both cases, a suspect was arrested and subsequently convicted in court.
Howell said his department has received assistance from other law enforcement agencies in investigating the double homicide.
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