On a Monday afternoon, November 9, 2020, 27-year-old Rico A. Turner of Bedford, Virginia, was fatally shot in the parking lot of the Lakeside Shopping Center in Salem. The tragic event unfolded at approximately 1:55 p.m. during what was intended to be a custody exchange. Turner was with his fiancée and her three children when he was confronted by Zane Chandler Christian, his fiancée's 25-year-old estranged husband from Christiansburg.
The situation escalated from a verbal argument to a physical altercation. Witnesses reported hearing the two men arguing before Turner pushed Christian. In response, Christian pulled out a handgun and shot Turner multiple times. The shooting occurred in the presence of Turner's fiancée and three young children, leading to additional charges against Christian for child neglect. When police arrived at the scene, Turner was still alive and was able to identify Zane Christian as the man who shot him before being transported to a local hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries.
Following the shooting, Zane Christian fled the scene, initiating a multi-state manhunt. Authorities reported that after leaving the shopping center, Christian was involved in a carjacking in Blacksburg. During his time on the run, he was allegedly active on Snapchat, posting a video where he talked about 'sniping people'. Less than 24 hours later, through the collaborative efforts of several law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Marshals Service, Christian was apprehended without incident in Ravenswood, West Virginia, a town roughly three and a half hours from Salem.
Zane Christian faced a series of charges, including felony murder, malicious wounding, reckless handling of a firearm, and three counts of child neglect. In court proceedings, it was revealed that just a week before the fatal shooting, Christian's child support payments to his estranged wife had been increased following a custody hearing. In October 2021, Christian entered pleas of no contest to second-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and two counts of shooting into an occupied vehicle. Ultimately, he was sentenced to 26 years in prison, followed by ten years of probation.
