Media General News Service
Published: March 27, 2008

5:27 p.m.
Arrest made in Byrd Park robbery
Richmond Police have arrested a 17 year old in connection with the early morning death of a VCU student in the 600 block of South Sheppard Street.

11:04 a.m.
A 19-year-old student at Virginia Commonwealth University was shot to death this morning in in Byrd Park.

Police responded to reports of a shooting in the 600 block of South Sheppard Street.  They found Tyler J. Binsted, a student from Mount Jackson in Shenandoah Valley, who had been shot in the back after a robbery near the Byrd Park tennis courts, according to VCU and police accounts.

Binsted, a sophomore sculpture major at VCU, was walking in the park with a friend when they were approached by two males, one armed with a gun. Binsted and his friend were robbed of their car keys, and he was shot in the back as they walked away.

The suspects fled in Binsted’s car, a navy blue Honda Accord, with Virginia license plate PHA 787. Police described the suspects as black males, between 14 and 17 years old, who were last seen driving toward South Richmond by the Boulevard Bridge.

“Please be assured that VCU will do everything it can to be sure that those responsible are apprehended and prosecuted,” the university said in a statement on its Web site.