On February 22, 2025, Newport News police were called to a home in the 1200 block of 16th Street after a resident reported an unresponsive man. Sixty-one-year-old Donnell Bowles was taken to a local hospital with a gunshot wound and died later that day. The resident, 64-year-old Natlie Johnson, initially told officers Bowles had arrived saying he’d been assaulted elsewhere.

Detectives’ inquiry quickly focused on the caller. On February 25, 2025, investigators arrested Natlie Johnson and charged her with first-degree murder and firearms offenses. Police have not released information about a motive or the relationship between Johnson and Bowles.

Bowles was remembered as a hardworking, loving, and devoted father, brother, uncle, and friend. A Menchville High School class of 1981 graduate, he worked many years at Howmet in Hampton and had recently reconnected with First Baptist Church Jefferson Park.

Did anyone in the Newport News area know Donnell Bowles or have information about his movements on February 22?