Hubert Lamar Burtz, a 41-year-old man, died on March 24, 2020, in Marietta, Georgia, after a shooting that turned an ordinary evening into a homicide scene at an Exxon station on Atlanta Road. Police were called to the gas station around 6:44 p.m., and when officers arrived they found Burtz dead there. Public reporting identified him as a Marietta native, though police coverage at the time also described him as a Mableton man, placing him within the Cobb County community that was left to absorb the shock of a sudden and violent loss.
In the immediate aftermath, investigators with Cobb County’s Crimes Against Persons Unit moved quickly, and within about two days authorities announced an arrest. The suspect publicly named in news coverage was Justin Shaw, 28, of Tallapoosa. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that Shaw was charged in connection with Burtz’s death, and another public summary of the case stated that the charges included felony murder and aggravated assault. The available reporting does not clearly describe a motive, nor does it lay out the sequence of events that led to the gunfire, so the picture that remains in public view is stark: a fatal shooting at a gas station, a rapid arrest, and a family left to bury Burtz just days later.
Beyond the arrest, the public online record that was readily accessible in reporting appears thin. I did not find reliable, accessible online sources confirming a later trial, plea, or conviction in Burtz’s killing, and the early articles indicated only that the case remained under investigation at that stage. His obituary and memorial notices returned the story to the personal scale, marking the end of a life that began in Marietta on October 20, 1978, and closed there on March 24, 2020, before funeral services were held at Georgia Memorial Park Cemetery.
