DANVILLE, Va. – Danville Police have identified the man who was murdered in the 300 block of Summit Rd. early Wednesday morning as 40-year-old Melvin Wayne Smith of Danville.

Officers responded to a call of shots fired at 6:40 a.m. and found Smith lying in the front yard of his home with gunshot wounds to the chest. He was unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene by medical personnel.

Danville Police are investigating Smith’s death as a homicide.

The circumstances surrounding the shooting are still under investigation, but police say this was not a random act. Police canvassed the area and officers from the crime scene unit processed the murder scene.

Smith’s body was transported to the Medical Examiner’s Office of the Western District in Roanoke.