HAMPTON — A U.S. marshals task force arrested a man wanted in a February slaying at a Wingstop restaurant in the Coliseum area.
The arrest of Isaiah Daqwon Harris, 25, came only days after the U.S. Marshals announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to his capture. He’s charged with killing Travell Lavar Giles, 29, a shift manager at the Wingstop, on Feb. 14.
“It took us a while, but we got him,” said U.S. Marshals Senior Inspector Robert Bowers, saying the agency joined the search within four or five days of the homicide.
Harris was located Thursday morning at a home on Roland Drive in Hampton, off East Mercury Boulevard and only about three miles from the Wingstop.
“We believe he was renting a room from someone there,” Bowers said.
A 10-member U.S. Marshals Task Force — marshals and police officers from local departments — surrounded the house about 10:20 a.m. They did a “call-out,” ordering Harris over a public address system to surrender. A relative also phoned him.
“She convinced him to come out,” Bowers said.
Harris walked out about 11:45 a.m., just as a Hampton Police SWAT Team arrived.
Bowers declined to say how the Marshals Service and Hampton Police tracked Harris to that location or whether the $5,000 reward played a role.
Harris faces charges of second-degree murder, possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and shooting inside an occupied building.
The slaying occurred at 8:15 p.m. on Valentine’s Day at the Wingstop at Coliseum Crossing, across the street from the J.C. Penney and Peninsula Town Center. It was one of two killings of young fast food workers in the heart of Hampton’s busiest shopping district in less than three months.
Sources said Giles and Harris got into an argument inside the restaurant, with Harris pulling out a handgun and shooting Giles multiple times, then fleeing on foot.
Giles died at the scene.
Responding police officers found his body on the kitchen floor, a few feet from the front counter, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Hampton Circuit Court. Police found seven .40-caliber cartridge casings, the affidavit said.
Giles’ mother, Trina Smith, said her understanding of the altercation is that her son — an assistant manager — asked the other employee to do something, and he refused, leading to a heated argument.
According to court records, Harris has several felony convictions to his name stemming from an October 2017 hit-and-run in Newport News. He pleaded guilty in 2018 to felony hit and run, grand larceny, credit card fraud and other counts. He got five years to serve.
In 2021 — while Harris was locked up at a state prison in Sussex — he was charged with four counts of malicious wounding-by-mob stemming from a July 2020 prison brawl. He pleaded guilty to reduced charges and was sentenced to six months behind bars.
Harris has an initial court appearance in the murder case scheduled for Hampton General District Court on June 21.
Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com
