On Monday, February 17, around 1:30 PM, a gunman shot and killed two people outside Harris Teeter in Crozet at the intersection of Rockfish Gap Turnpike and Radford Lane. Albemarle County police have identified the shooter as Justin M. Barbour, 28, of Crozet, using an AR-15. The first victim was Peter L. Martin of Crozet, 23, who was shot and killed as he exited the store. Barbour then shot Diane G. Spangler of Afton, 68, who was sitting in her car. An off-duty federal agent who happened to be leaving Harris Teeter at that moment heard the gunfire and fired on Barbour with their personal weapon. Albemarle police arrived about five minutes later. Barbour was pronounced deceased at the scene. Spangler, in critical condition, was hospitalized at UVA Medical Center, and died from her injuries last night.
“Crozet is thought of as the kind of quiet part of Albemarle County,” said Andre Morgan, a resident who witnessed the shooting. “This just can’t be real.”
Morgan was across the street from Harris Teeter when he heard the gunshots. He said the shooter looked cool and composed as he opened fire. “Anything he saw, he just locked onto.” Morgan’s initial reaction was shock.
“Nothing in the world could’ve prepared me to react to this,” he said. “I stood there watching in absolute shock, and I think it was my brain just saying, ‘This is Crozet. This is Harris Teeter in Crozet. This can’t be happening.’”
“I saw the windows of a red Subaru begin to shatter and explode, and that’s when it hit me that this is serious,” said Morgan. “I realized, and I finally got the words out: active shooter. Everyone else behind the counter was kind of like, ‘What?’ like not sure if I was serious. So, I kind of yelled it.”
Peter Martin, the first victim, was a husband and father who worked in finance and moved to Crozet from Detroit in 2022.
“They knew this was where they wanted to live and raise a family,” said Martin’s brother-in-law Matthew Rowan. “He really loved the Crozet community and felt like this was his home.” Diane Spangler, the second victim, was a retired neonatal ICU nurse who “loved her pets, garden and books,” a friend who wished to remain anonymous told the Daily Progress.
According to an anonymous former classmate of Barbour, who graduated from Western Albemarle High School in 2015, “Something must have gone seriously wrong.” He told the Daily Progress that he “wouldn’t even put him in the top 50th percentile of people who could have done that.”
Barbour had no criminal history, but did have unspecified prior contact with law enforcement as recently as January. Police found additional firearms in his vehicle after the shooting had occurred. The motive for the crime has not yet been determined. Colonel Sean Reeves, Albemarle County Police Chief, said in a Tuesday morning press conference that “the case facts and evidence are pointing to a random act of violence.” Police report that they have reviewed surveillance camera footage of the scene and interviewed witnesses.
Reeves also shared his view that the off-duty officer who intervened is owed an “immense debt of gratitude” and saved many lives: “This heroic individual selflessly placed themselves in harm’s way to stop the gunman and prevent further loss of life… Without their brave actions, there’s no doubt the casualty count could have been much higher.”
Scott Goodman, a local criminal defense lawyer, agreed: “He’s obviously a hero…It could have been a mass shooting event, the worst in local history and known worldwide. He asserted that “it just sounds like a totally justified shooting on the part of the law enforcement officer.”
Reeves declined to reveal the officer’s name, sex, or federal agency at which they are employed, saying “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.”
Police have referred to the agent as a “good samaritan” to local news. Reeves announced that his department would not seek any criminal charges against the officer.
What’s left is for the local community to heal. “Tragedies can happen anywhere just driving on the road, but for someone to go grocery shopping and never make it back to their car, or someone have their final moments be trapped inside the car, I can’t imagine the terror in the families trying to cope with that and figure out the answers,” said Morgan.
The Albemarle County Police Department has asked members of the public to contact them at (434)-296-5807 or the anonymous tip line Crime Stoppers, at (434)-977-4000 and [email protected] if they have relevant information to share.
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