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Neighbors: Norfolk shooting victim had box cutter on him

Posted at 5:27 PM, Jun 20, 2014
and last updated 2014-06-20 17:27:26-04

Police remained on the scene Friday, the day after a man was shot and killed outside his Park Place apartment in Norfolk.

The man has been identified as 47-year-old Tony Phelps.

"Even though he's loud, he's been nothing but helpful. he would take the trash out for me and things like that," said Phelps' neighbor Mercedez Wiggins.

Phelps was found laying on the dirt on the sidewalk's edge on 35th Street.

"When they picked him up and put him on a stretcher, I saw two gunshot wounds, two red dots," said Tremyl Dickens, Phelps' neighbor.

Phelps was on his way to the soup kitchen at Park Place Methodist Church, where he often worked as a server or cook.

"He got to be more than we could handle sometimes, ya know?" said John Schrowder, who worked at the soup kitchen with Phelps. "He took over, he was the boss."

Friends say Phelps wasn't in good health. He suffered from diabetes -- a disease, those who knew the victim say, he didn't treat.

"He was either losing or about to lose some toes on his feet and he had some problems he was not living an easy life," Schrowder said.

Neighbors say Phelps had a box cutter on him when his body was turned over.

"He was just laying on his face when I went there and called him name," Dickens said. "He tried to turn over and look at me."

No arrests have been made.

Norfolk Police haven't even released any description of the shooter.

Witnesses say about 10 people running west on 35th Street, while Phelps bloody body was left behind.