A man police say fatally shot a Cape Charles woman on Saturday, Feb. 25, is a grandson of the victim.
Anthony Mercado, 25, is charged with second-degree murder, police said, in the slaying of 73-year-old Jane Grigsby McKinley of 526 Tazewell Ave.
Mercado is also charged with reckless handling of a firearm and malicious discharge of a firearm inside a dwelling, said Cape Charles Police Chief Jim Pruitt in a prepared release.
“The town requests that everyone please have respect for the family and (its) privacy, as (it is) facing a rough road ahead,” Pruitt said in the release.
More charges against Mercado are “likely” to follow, Pruitt said, adding that the investigation into McKinley’s death continues.
Police did not say Mercado and McKinley were related.
However, an obituary for McKinley’s husband that was printed in the Sept. 17, 2013, edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch lists Mercado as a grandchild.
Police said officers responded at 5:03 p.m. Saturday “to a report of shots fired” in the 500 block of Tazewell Avenue.
When police arrived they identified a suspect who was taken into custody at 5:07 p.m. Emergency medical personnel said the victim had died.
“There is no threat to the public with the sole suspect in custody,” the town stated in the press release.
The incident jolted a quiet spring-like evening in an idyllic area — the tree-lined block where the shooting occurred is within easy walking distance of churches, restaurants, and Cape Charles’ historic downtown.
McKinley owned a landscape design company, was a member of the Cape Charles Tree Advisory Board, and was a Master Gardener.
