Man charged in Hampton double slaying
Court filings: Feud between families boiled over in shooting
A 35-year-old man charged in a Hampton double slaying is accused of firing multiple rounds into a man and his mother at close range after they already had been shot and were helpless on the ground, court documents say.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Hampton General District Court, Torrey R. Whitlow, a warehouse worker who lived on Apple Avenue in Olde Wythe, is charged with killing Maurice Bailey, 25, and his mother, Lois Bailey, 50, on Sept. 24 following a long-running neighborhood feud.
The complaint said that after shooting 27-year-old Tyrell Bailey, Whitlow then shot Maurice Bailey, who fell to the ground.
“Torrey Whitlow then stood over Maurice Bailey and fired several more bullets into (his) body,” Hampton police detective Eugene Calloway wrote in the complaint. “Torrey Whitlow then shot Lois Bailey, who also fell the ground.”
He then stood over her “and fired additional rounds” into her body too, the complaint said.
Whitlow, who lived a few houses down the block, then fled in his red pickup, the complaint said, with others saying another man was with him at the time.
Neighbors said they tried to help Bailey, a mother of nine and a housekeeper at a Hampton Holiday Inn, because she didn’t die instantly. Another son, Demetrius Bailey, said she had been sitting on the porch of her Apple Avenue home before the fight.
“She was trying to break it up,” Demetrius said.
She and Maurice Bailey died on the street, police said.
The complaint said that the 27-year-old brother, Tyrell Bailey, was also shot in the head, resulting in a skull fracture. But the family said that turned out to be a fairly superficial graze wound, and he was released from the hospital the following morning.
Court documents say that the
red pickup was left on Chesterfield Road, several streets away.
Whitlow was arrested Nov. 18 by a joint task force of Hampton police and the U.S. Marshals Service. He was arrested without incident at a home on Clemwood Parkway in the Willow Oaks area, Deputy U.S. Marshal Chris Leuer said.
“Just through our regular investigative measures, we were able to figure out where he was staying,” Leuer said. “It wasn’t a tip or anything like that ... It was just kind of old-fashioned police work, to try to figure out where someone who doesn’t want to be caught is hiding. We figured he was local, we figured he was being assisted by either relatives or close associates.”
Leuer added: “We’re very happy to have worked with Hampton PD on getting him into custody — especially someone charged with shooting three people and taking two lives from the same family.”
Whitlow is charged with two counts of second-degree murder, each punishable by up to 40 years in prison, one count of aggravated malicious wounding, and five gun charges.
A bail checklist said he’s worked at a local warehouse since 2017, doesn’t have a prior criminal record, and was “cooperative with law enforcement during arrest and bail hearing.”
A fight a year ago between two teenage friends over a basketball game led to a feud between families in the Hampton neighborhood.
The Bailey family told the Daily Press in September that when Whitlow’s son and another boy began fighting over the 1-on-1 basketball game last year, Whitlow got involved — punching and kicking the other teen. They said he “upper-cutted” the Bailey brother, causing him to fall to the ground and black out.
The ensuing feud — which also included heated words at a local convenience store — led to three confrontations on Sept. 24 between the families, who live about six houses apart on Apple Avenue.
When Whitlow came home in his pickup that afternoon, and he and a couple of others walked a few houses down the block to confront the Baileys.
At the time, Tyrell Bailey getting out of his car, Lois Bailey was sitting on the front porch. Maurice Bailey was upstairs in the Bailey family’s home but heard that “people were outside trying to jump (his brother),” so came out to help, his brother said.
Whitlow, represented by the Hampton public defender’s office, is being held without bond at the Hampton City Jail. He is next due in court on Jan. 20.
Hampton Public Defender Matt Johnson could not be reached late Monday.