By admin 
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Lewis Smith said the people who shot and killed his great-nephew at a Virginia gas station posted a photo of his body on Instagram with a message: “Come get your man.”
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Smith’s great nephew, 17-year-old Tavion Smith, was shot and killed outside a Wawa convenience store and gas station early Sunday morning, on Mother’s Day. And that photo, Lewis Smith said, was how he found out his great-nephew had died.
The Instagram photo, Lewis Smith said, was sent to his son by a friend who saw it.
“My [great]-nephew has an Instagram account, and they sent a picture of him laying on the ground [at Wawa],” Lewis Smith said with tears in his eyes, “and my son got the picture, and that’s how I found out.”
Tavion Smith, who died after being shot early Sunday morning outside a Portsmouth Wawa, according to police. 
Lewis Smith, great-uncle of Tavion Smith 
Photo of clock inside Lewis Smith’s home, where Tavion Smith had been living. 
Ty’metria Angena Smith, mother of Tavion Smith. She was killed in a 2019 car crash in Virginia Beach. 
Ty’metria Angena Smith, with her son, Tavion Smith in an undated photo. She died in a 2019 car crash, while police said Tavion Smith was shot and killed outside a Portsmouth Wawa last Sunday morning..
Lewis Smith, who has a clock in his home that reads, “Time spent with family is worth every second,” regrets the last seconds he spent with his great-nephew.
“‘Why are you so loud?’ Lewis Smith said to his great-nephew. “He was playing a game in the room. [He] woke me up screaming and hollering [about the game]. That was the last I said to him.”
Lewis Smith said Tavion left his Chesapeake home, perhaps in a rideshare vehicle, and ended up nine miles away at the Wawa — a place he said Tavion did not frequent — before he was shot and killed. Police later released surveillance photos of two young men they want to question in the case.
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WAVY’s Karina Garcia, a customer,was steps away from the line of fire. One round from the gunfire hit her car near the gas tank. She was unharmed and later provided coverage from the scene.
Tavion spent his last two years living in the Smith family home and was not enrolled in school, which may have contributed to problems in the teen’s life, Lewis Smith said. He described Tavion as a high-energy young man who was full of laughs.
Lewis Smith told Nexstar’s WAVY that Tavion was not a member of a gang, but he was a gang target. The search continues for two young men who were caught on camera.
Lewis Smith has a message for the people who know who killed his great-nephew.
“Leave it alone. They shouldn’t retaliate — they should just celebrate [Tavion’s] life because it’s going to be more death. It’s going to be more death,” Lewis Smith said.
The Smith family was also in the news in 2019 due to a tragedy: Tavion’s mother was killed in a single-vehicle crash in Virginia Beach.
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Now, Lewis Smith said, mother and son are together again.