HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) — A 17-year-old Hampton teen who was shot and killed earlier this week is being remembered by his family as a successful entrepreneur.
Vic’Quan Newton was a Hampton High School senior, a football standout and had only been in the school since last April.
But on Monday someone killed him.
10 On Your Side met with family members speaking out against senseless violence that left him dead.
“To seek justice for my son,” at this point is all Viccarra Coker can hope for — to find her son’s killers.
Viccarra Coker’s son, Vic’Quan Newton, was shot in the 300 Block of Michigan Drive. He was able to drive to the area of Michigan Drive and LaSalle Avenue, where he took a left then drove about a mile to just past Armistead Avenue, where he drove off into a ditch.
He was taken to hospital where he later died.
Vic’Quan Newton had a fighting will to live that fell short of a bullet.
Newton lived with his brother, Roshawn Newtown-Johnson, and his wife Felisha Lonon. Roshawn was on military deployment when all this happened on Monday night.
Then, a knock at the door. Police. The news.
“I was scared to call his mother because I knew what she had just recently gone through and I just I just couldn’t call her,” Lonon said while standing on the steps of Hampton City Hall after an interview with 10 On Your Side. “So, I kind of just shut the door and went into my room and screamed, and like, I knew I had to call her because I didn’t want the detectives to tell her the news.”
Lonon called her mother-in-law, Viccarra Coker.
“I fell to the floor. I called for my mother because she was at my house in preparation of going to the press conference for my daughter, who was killed two years ago.”
Coker’s daughter was killed by an Amtrak train Oct. 30, 2021.
Now this.
Coker answered the question of why she thought he was killed.
“I feel like he was targeted because of all of his successes in the way that he carried himself,” Coker said. “He was super successful at football, super successful as an entrepreneur, super successful with daily trading. He even had a job.”
Mom said her son was neither in nor ever had been in a gang, but she does have a message for the evil that killed her son.
“You guys don’t deserve to take people’s lives,” Coker said. “You don’t deserve to ruin people’s lives. You don’t deserve to end people’s lives. You don’t get to do that.”
You don’t want Viccarra Coker’s pain — a mother who’s lost two children, but know this for anyone out there who knows something.
“I am not going away,” Coker said. “So may you or whomever is involved, whomever knows who killed my child, and is not saying anything, may you all endure and live the life that you deserve. Not the life you desire, but the life you deserve.”
The family is appreciative of all Hampton High School has done. They say the football coach and his wife picked up the family at the airport with a signed jersey from the team.
There is a candlelight vigil for Vic’Quan Newton at Hampton High School at 6 p.m. Monday.
If you know anything, call Hampton Police at 757-727-6111 or the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.
