UPDATE: Security guard slain in Chesterfield died from blow to head

An unarmed, on-duty security guard found dead today in an apartment complex near Chippenham Parkway and Ironbridge Road was killed by a blow to the head, the state medical examimer said this afternoon. The guard worked for American Security Group, police said.

The body of Damion L. West, 28, of the 6400 block of Lovey Road in Richmond was discovered shortly after 4 a.m. near a retention pond at the Ivy Walk Apartments in the 4800 block of Burnt Oak Drive, near the southwestern tip of Falling Creek, police said. West was found after officers first discovered his abandoned, marked security vehicle.

Police said West had been working as a security guard last night at the complex. He died of blunt force trauma to the head, said a spokesman for the state medical examiner’s office.

Authorities were originally called to the scene shortly after 4:15 a.m. for a report of an auto accident, but they found “an unattended vehicle that was up against a wood line,” said Chesterfield police Capt. Kevin Smith said. “Wrecked would not describe it. It was not wrecked.”

“We believe the circumstances are suspicious,” Smith added. 

Police are investigating his death as a homicide. 

While forensics crews and a representative of the medical examiner’s office worked at the scene, they closed off Burnt Oak Drive, the only road leading into and out of the apartment complex.