By Steve Stone
The Virginian-Pilot
© April 28, 2008
NORFOLK
Police continued to pursue what leads they have this weekend in the slaying of a Navy lieutenant, gunned down face-to-face by his killer Thursday night as he walked with his fiancee and two children not far from Wards Corner.
But there have been no arrests, said Sgt. Jim Robertson, a police spokesman, and there is very little information available.
Lt. Todd Michael Cox, 40, was walking in the 100 block of Beverly Ave., across Granby Street from the Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center, when, just after 8 p.m. Thursday, a truck pulled up.
Witnesses told investigators that a man got out of the vehicle, walked up to Cox and shot him at point blank range. The gunman then continued to fire after the victim fell to the ground.
The assailant then got back in the vehicle and drove off.
Because of the extent of his wounds, paramedics did not take Cox to nearby DePaul, but rather to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital which has the region’s highest-level trauma care facility, said Jack Goldhorn, a spokesman for Norfolk Fire-Rescue. But his wounds were grave, and he was pronounced dead a short time later.
On Sunday, Robertson said investigators are pursuing every lead they have. But how many there are and what they might entail was not disclosed.
Robertson said police have only the sketchiest description of a suspect. It does not include any indication of the gunman’s age, height, weight or what he was wearing.
There also is very little information available about the truck he was driving other than that it was a pickup truck, Robertson said. The model or color "depends on which witness you talk to," he said, "that’s why we haven’t put anything out on it."
The motive for the slaying also is not known.
Neither Cox nor those with him were robbed, police have said. Police did not say if the assailant made any comments before or during the shooting.
The shooting scene is just a short walk from Cox’s home, along a bend in Granby Street where Beverly Avenue is one of a half-dozen, single-block streets to the east of the busy main thoroughfare. They all end at the water’s edge, along a tributary of the Lafayette River.
Police data suggest it is a neighborhood relatively free of major crimes.
A check of reported criminal incidents in the area for 2007 turned up only a few occurrences: vehicle thefts in October from the 100 block of Dumont Ave. and in June from the 100 block of Fayton Ave., both just north of the street where the shooting occurred. There also was a theft of items from a vehicle in the 100 block of Windham Road, south of the shooting scene, in August.
Several residents of the area interviewed since the shooting have said it has made them fearful, and they did not want to be quoted by name.
"There’s someone out there with a gun who knows these streets," said one man who lives only a block from the shooting scene. "That is very disturbing because there was no reason to this. Why just pull up and kill this guy? That could have been me out for a walk."
As police continue their investigation, the victim’s family and friends are planning today for his funeral on Tuesday.
Cox, a native of Altoona, Penn., enlisted in the Navy at 17 and had served as an enlisted man for 15 years. In 2000, he graduated from Officer Candidate School and later received a degree in professional aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Cox was stationed at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland from 1987 to 1994, then at Jacksonville’s Mayport Naval Station before coming to the Norfolk Naval Station in August 2006 where he was serving as a maintenance officer at Airborne Early Warning Squadron 125.
He was a decorated veteran of the Persian Gulf War and had more recently deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
He had a daughter and a son and was helping to raise his fiancee’s daughter.
According to his obituary, Cox "enjoyed working out, biking and taking walks with his family" and "was starting a new chapter in his life, blending families and looking forward to growing old with his fiancée."
A funeral Mass will be conducted at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in the 6400 block of Newport Ave. in Norfolk.
The family has asked that memorial contributions be made to the United Cerebral Palsy Association, 1660 L St., NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036.
Steve Stone, (757) 446-2319/2309,
[email protected]
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