NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — 31-year-old Dequan Copeland was sentenced to 30 years in prison after being convicted by a Norfolk jury earlier this year of fatally shooting a father in front of his 2-year-old daughter during an altercation in February 2021.

Tracy Eugene Bellamy Jr., 23, showed up to his estranged wife’s home, armed and unannounced, to pick up his daughter, according to the Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office. Copeland was dating the woman and was at the house at the time. Bellamy began arguing with Copeland and demanded to take his daughter.

After Bellamy put his child in the car, Copeland got a gun from inside the house and fired several shots at Bellamy, fatally wounding him. Bellamy returned fire, but missed.

Bellamy attempted to drive away, but the injuries caused him to crash the car at a low rate of speed. Although the child wasn’t hit during the gunfire, she did get minor injuries as a result of the crash.

While the mother of the child was calling 911, Copeland took the phone in order to blame Bellamy for the incident. After Bellamy died at the hospital, Copeland fled to Arizona where he was found and arrested a month later.

Copeland was charged with second-degree murder, using a firearm in the commission of murder, being a felon in possession of a firearm, recklessly discharging a gun resulting in an injury, maliciously shooting into an occupied vehicle and unlawfully shooting at a vehicle. He pled guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and went to trial for the other charges where he was found guilty.

On Friday, he was sentenced to serve 30 years in prison and three years of post-release supervision. That sentence was above the high end of Copeland’s advisory sentencing guidelines.

“Mr. Copeland killed Mr. Bellamy in front of Mr. Bellamy’s toddler child,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “The last memory that child will have of her father is of her father dying. Mr. Copeland will now spend most of the rest of his life in prison for robbing that child of her father and for taking Mr. Bellamy away from his loved ones forever. I wish Mr. Bellamy’s family peace and hope that they take comfort in the accountability we have secured today.”