On the evening of Friday, October 16, 2020, in Charlottesville, Virginia, 19-year-old Gabriel Joseph Price was fatally wounded in a shooting on Mallside Forest Court. Emergency services were dispatched to the 800 block of Mallside Forest Court shortly before 10 p.m. following reports of the shooting. Price was transported to the University of Virginia Medical Center, where he ultimately succumbed to his injuries.
The Albemarle County Police Department promptly launched a homicide investigation into the shooting. Their investigation led to the identification of multiple suspects. Less than a month later, on November 11, 2020, authorities announced the arrests of 20-year-old Cordonte Douglas Horton of Charlottesville and a 15-year-old juvenile, who was also a resident of Charlottesville. Both Horton and the juvenile were charged with second-degree murder in connection with Price's death. They also faced additional drug and firearms charges.
In the course of the investigation, a third individual was also arrested. Jalen Maurice Fitch, a 20-year-old from Albemarle County, was taken into custody on drug and firearms charges that arose from the homicide investigation. At the time of his arrest, Fitch had been on house arrest after being released from the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail as a precaution due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Authorities initially stated that they believed the shooting was an isolated incident and continued to seek information from the public.
