PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — In a heart-wrenching revelation, Lewis Smith shared that those responsible for his great-nephew’s tragic death at a Virginia gas station had the audacity to post an image of the crime scene on Instagram, captioning it with the taunting words: “Come get your man.”
Tavion Smith, just 17 years old, was fatally shot outside a Wawa store and gas station in the early hours of Mother’s Day. Lewis Smith recounted that he learned of his great-nephew’s passing through this unsettling social media post.
The heart-breaking image was brought to Lewis Smith’s attention when it was forwarded to his son by a friend who had stumbled upon it online.
“My great-nephew had an Instagram account, and they circulated a picture of him lying on the ground at Wawa,” Lewis Smith said, his voice choked with emotion, “and that’s the way my son learned about it, which is how it reached me.”
A clock in Lewis Smith’s home, inscribed with the words “Time spent with family is worth every second,” serves as a poignant reminder of the precious moments he wishes he could have shared with his great-nephew.
“‘Why are you so loud?’ Lewis Smith said to his great-nephew. “He was playing a game in the room. [He] woke me up screaming and hollering [about the game]. That was the last I said to him.”
Lewis Smith said Tavion left his Chesapeake home, perhaps in a rideshare vehicle, and ended up nine miles away at the Wawa — a place he said Tavion did not frequent — before he was shot and killed. Police later released surveillance photos of two young men they want to question in the case.
WAVY’s Karina Garcia, a customer, was steps away from the line of fire. One round from the gunfire hit her car near the gas tank. She was unharmed and later provided coverage from the scene.
Tavion spent his last two years living in the Smith family home and was not enrolled in school, which may have contributed to problems in the teen’s life, Lewis Smith said. He described Tavion as a high-energy young man who was full of laughs.
Lewis Smith told Nexstar’s WAVY that Tavion was not a member of a gang, but he was a gang target. The search continues for two young men who were caught on camera.
Lewis Smith has a message for the people who know who killed his great-nephew.
“Leave it alone. They shouldn’t retaliate — they should just celebrate [Tavion’s] life because it’s going to be more death. It’s going to be more death,” Lewis Smith said.
The Smith family was also in the news in 2019 due to a tragedy: Tavion’s mother was killed in a single-vehicle crash in Virginia Beach.
Now, Lewis Smith said, mother and son are together again.