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Private investigator video shows 2016 double homicide unfold in Newport News neighborhood

Posted at 4:36 PM, Mar 27, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-27 18:17:24-04

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - A private investigator who happened to be in the area in an unrelated matter found himself in front of what would become a double homicide back on January 14, 2016.

He started recording after a car crash near 14th Street and Wickham Avenue.

The video, along with police body camera video and an audio recording of the 911, call were recently used for trial and are now public record.

Warning: Some viewers may find the compilation of those videos, with the 911 recording, disturbing.

All combined together, they give the first real look at what happened that day.

Newport News Police say they were originally called to the location for a crash, but that call was eventually upgraded to a subject with a gun and then to a shooting.

The 911 caller describes the first man leaving the scene, who turned out to be Stephen Hayes.

He turned himself into police about a month after the incident.

"There's gun shots, somebody's shot, oh my God," the caller says, getting increasingly upset and panicked during the phone call. "One left first and the other one that left the second time, he stayed with the car, and he shot everybody in the car."

The shooter, Laratio Dantzler, 33, with the help of the caller's descriptions, was spotted minutes after the shooting on Roanoke Avenue.

Master Police Officer Jamie Acree's body camera video shows her driving to the scene.

You can hear what dispatchers are saying the entire time, which indicate that Dantzler was running through the Stuart Gardens neighborhood.

Eventually, the video shows Acree rushing out of the car to confront him.

"Get down, get on the ground, drop the gun," MPO Acree says repeatedly and loudly during the body camera video.

Eventually the video shows her fire one gunshot.

She describes that the gun is no longer on Dantzler's body and she approaches to help arrest him.

Police say MPO Acree and Sergeant Brendan Bartley both discharged their firearms during the confrontation. However, the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office found the shooting to be justified.

After a jury trial, Dantzler was convicted of two counts of first degree murder, among other related charges, and sentenced to life behind bars.

Hayes faces a trial on April 24 on several charges including robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.