Woman Convicted at Trial of Reckless Handling, Shooting Gun Outside Wards Corner Apartment in 2024
NORFOLK, Va. — Nigeria Shari Flythe, 22, was convicted on Tuesday of recklessly handling a firearm and discharging the firearm in a public place after she shot a gun to threaten a man with whom she was arguing outside of her apartment last year.
On the morning of June 16, 2024, Ms. Flythe fired a gun outside her apartment building in the Wards Corner area after she argued with a man whom she invited over the night before. Ms. Flythe’s across-the-hall neighbor — who heard Ms. Flythe yelling and subsequently heard the gunshot — had a doorbell camera which recorded Ms. Flythe walking out of her apartment with a handgun, swearing, and walking out the front door of the building just before she fired the shot. No one was injured by the bullet.
Ms. Flythe called Norfolk Police, claiming that the man had assaulted her and burglarized her apartment. The officer who arrived searched Ms. Flythe’s apartment as well as the outside of the building and declined to arrest the man after finding no evidence consistent with an assault or burglary. After reviewing the neighbor’s camera footage, the officer issued summonses against Ms. Flythe for recklessly handling and illegally discharging a firearm in public. Under Virginia law, both crimes are misdemeanors, which are punishable by up to 12 months in jail.
Ms. Flythe was tried in Norfolk General District Court for those charges, found guilty as charged, and sentenced to suspended jail time conditioned on her undergoing a mental health assessment, being of uniform good behavior, and complying with supervised probation for six months.
Ms. Flythe exercised her right to appeal her conviction to the Norfolk Circuit Court. On Tuesday, after hearing the evidence in a new bench trial, Judge Everett A. Martin Jr. found Ms. Flythe guilty as charged and set her sentencing hearing on June 20.
“There is no such thing in Virginia as a ‘warning shot,’ and firing off a gun in the way that Ms. Flythe did endangers innocent people for no good reason,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “A crime does not need to be a felony to be serious, and yet in courtrooms all over Hampton Roads, many misdemeanors go to trial, conviction, and sentencing with no prosecutor involved. That is why for years I have advocated for the full funding of prosecutors’ offices in Virginia so that we may have a prosecutor in court with every single victim on every single misdemeanor case. Justice demands it.”
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Victoria T. Vaccaro is prosecuting Ms. Flythe’s case, and Norfolk Police Officer James P. Stalcup led the investigation.
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