Norfolk Jury Convicts Man of Killing Man, Injuring Man’s Mother, in 2022 Mangrove Avenue Shooting
NORFOLK, Va. – On Thursday, a Norfolk jury convicted 27-year-old Rhodean Harolquan Rhodes-Hamlin of killing 37-year-old Sidney Norman Parker, injuring Mr. Parker’s mother, and two firearm charges from a 2022 Ingleside shooting.
After 10 p.m. on July 19, 2022, Mr. Parker and Mr. Rhodes-Hamlin got into an altercation in the 3500 block of Mangrove Avenue. Mr. Parker believed he saw Mr. Rhodes-Hamlin push his girlfriend, so he pushed Mr. Rhodes-Hamlin. Mr. Rhodes-Hamlin stumbled backward but did not fall to the ground and was not injured.
Mr. Rhodes-Hamlin then pulled out a handgun and fired ten rounds. Six bullets hit Mr. Parker in his torso and groin, and Mr. Parker was pronounced dead after being transported to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. One bullet hit Mr. Parker’s mother — who had been standing next to him during the altercation — in her arm, and she required a rod to be surgically inserted to correct her injury.
Mr. Rhodes-Hamlin fled the scene on foot after the shooting, and video surveillance footage from nearby businesses captured Mr. Rhodes-Hamlin as he walked by. Mr. Rhodes-Hamlin was arrested without incident by the Norfolk Police Fugitive Section on July 26, 2022.
At trial, Mr. Rhodes-Hamlin claimed that he saw numerous bystanders with firearms during the altercation and that he was acting in self-defense after Mr. Parker pushed him. Mr. Parker was not armed.
On Thursday morning, after less than an hour of deliberation following a two-day trial, the jury found Mr. Rhodes-Hamlin guilty of second-degree murder, aggravated malicious wounding, and two counts of the use of a firearm in the commission of those felonies. Mr. Rhodes-Hamlin is docketed for sentencing before Judge Everett A. Martin Jr. on March 22.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorneys Melinda F. Seemar and Graham M. Stolle are prosecuting Mr. Rhodes-Hamlin’s case on behalf of the Commonwealth, and Norfolk Police Detectives Kyle D. Austin and Peter G. Kolb led the investigation.
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