'Never gave up hope': Hopewell Police arrest suspect in 2019 slaying of Richmond fire official
HOPEWELL – Police have arrested a person they think is responsible for a drive-by shooting on Thanksgiving night four years ago that killed a Richmond city fire official.
Darrell Donnell Taylor Jr., 30, was indicted by a Hopewell grand jury last week in the death of Lt. Ashley Nicole Berry. He has been charged with murder, use of a firearm in commission of a felony, conspiracy to commit murder and shooting into an occupied building.
At the time of his indictment, Taylor was in the Lawrenceville Correctional Center serving a five-year sentence for a 2020 strangulation in Hopewell.
Berry, 33, was shot around 11:30 p.m. Nov. 28, 2019, in the 1100 block of Sunnyside Avenue. According to police reports, she was trying to shield her young son from the drive-by gunfire when she was hit.
Berry died the next morning at VCU Medical Center in Richmond.
In a statement announcing the arrest, interim police chief Greg Taylor said the department "never gave up hope" on finding the suspect.
"This arrest serves as a reminder of our pledge to doing everything in our power to solve crime within ourcity," the chief said. "We will never stop seeking justice for our victims.”
Last week, a Hopewell grand jury handed up indictments in three separate cases: the Berry murder, the 2022 death of a Petersburg man in the parking lot of Carter G. Woodson Middle School and the Dec. 30, 2022 shooting death of an eight-year-old girl in the city's Arlington area.
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Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Hopewell Police arrest suspect in Thanksgiving 2019 drive-by death
