‘Hero’ likely averted mass shooting at Crozet Harris Teeter that killed 3

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    Albemarle County (The Daily Progress) — Arifle-toting gunman in the parking lot of a Crozet grocery store claimed the lives of two people: a retired nurse living near Afton and a banker who had recently moved to Crozet’s Old Trail community. But there are some who think he could have claimed even more lives had he not been shot and killed by an off-duty federal agent who happened to be exiting the Harris Teeter at the exact right moment.

“It sounds like this shooter was aiming to knock off as many people as he could,” longtime local criminal defense lawyer Scott Goodman told The Daily Progress.

Goodman reached this conclusion after hearing what Albemarle County police revealed at a Tuesday morning press conference: that before getting killed by the off-duty officer the gunman used an AR-15 to shoot what appeared to be two strangers and that police found additional firearms in the gunman’s vehicle nearby.

“It could have been a mass shooting event, the worst in local history and known worldwide,” said Goodman.

Police also revealed Tuesday that it was mere coincidence that the off-duty officer was in the store at the Blue Ridge Shopping Center when the gunfire erupted around 1:35 p.m.

“Just 20 seconds of shooting had elapsed before the off-duty federal agent who heard the gunfire and was exiting Harris Teeter engaged the shooter with their personal weapon,” said Capt. Darrell Byers. “The shooter was pronounced deceased at the scene.”

In an apparent nod to a recent trend among law enforcers to avoid amplifying, which could be seen as glorifying, the names of gunmen, police declined to identify the shooter at the press conference. However, they did include it in a press release which identified him as 28-year-old Justin Barbour of Crozet.

Barbour was a 2015 graduate of Western Albemarle High School who was popular with his classmates, according to one of them.

“Something must have gone seriously wrong,” the former classmate told The Daily Progress, asking to remain anonymous for privacy reasons. “I wouldn’t even put him in the top 50th percentile of people who could have done that.”

Subsequent to their last meeting about a year ago, however, the acquaintance learned that Barbour had been experiencing unspecified problems with his mental health.

As for the victims, the first was 43-year-old Peter Martin. A Detroit native, a husband and a father who worked in finance, Martin had moved to Old Trail in 2022. He was exiting the store when shot, according to police.

His brother-in-law Matthew Rowan said that Martin and his wife were married at Veritas Vineyard & Winery in Afton and that the couple had two girls.

“They knew this was where they wanted to live and raise a family,” Rowan told The Daily Progress. “He really loved the Crozet community and felt like this was his home.”

The second person shot was 68-year-old Diane Spangler who, police said, was shot while inside her vehicle outside the grocery store and died of her injuries while hospitalized Monday night at University of Virginia Medical Center in nearby Charlottesville. Spangler was a retired neonatal intensive care unit nurse who loved her pets, garden and books, according to a friend who did not wish to be identified.

According to police, the shooter had no criminal history, but they said he did have prior contact with law enforcement, most recently in January, but they declined to specify what transpired. They also declined to specify how many firearms they found in his vehicle.

Albemarle County Police Chief Sean Reeves said that investigators have not determined a motive.

“The case facts and evidence are pointing to a random act of violence,” said Reeves.

Reeves said investigators would attempt to answer an array of questions in coming days.

“Perhaps the most pressing questions are why,” he said. “Why did the shooter choose Harris Teeter? Why did he take the lives of two innocent people?”

Even as he lamented the deaths, Reeves shared his view that the federal officer who intervened stopped something far worse.

“Without their brave actions, there’s no doubt the casualty count could have been much higher,” said Reeves.

While he called the officer “heroic,” Reeves declined to identify the off-duty officer by name, sex or even the federal agency that employs them.

“I’m not going to thrust that upon an individual and force them in the spotlight out of their comfort zone if they do not want to be publicly identified,” said Reeves.

He said his department would not seek any criminal charge against the officer who killed Barbour.

“It just sounds like a totally justified shooting on the part of the law enforcement officer,” said Goodman. “He’s obviously a hero.”

At the time of Monday’s shooting, weather forecasts predicted a major snowfall in the area Wednesday. Goodman surmised that the grocery store and its parking lot would have made an easy target with so many stocking up on staple foods before the storm’s arrival.

“Just think what would have happened,” said Goodman, “if that law enforcement officer had not stepped in.”

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