On the night of July 3, 2019, Troy Daniel Barnett Jr., a 20-year-old male from Stafford, Virginia, was fatally shot in the parking lot of a 5 Twelve convenience store on Garrisonville Road. The incident, which occurred at approximately 10:15 p.m., also left an 18-year-old woman, Laura Guadalupe Gomez-De La Cruz, with life-threatening injuries from gunshot wounds to her upper body.
When deputies from the Stafford County Sheriff's Office arrived at the scene, they found both Barnett and Gomez-De La Cruz unresponsive. Barnett was pronounced dead at the scene.
The investigation into the shooting spanned five weeks, during which detectives executed over 50 search warrants. Their efforts led them to three juvenile suspects, all students at North Stafford High School. On August 19, 2019, a 15-year-old male and two 17-year-old males were taken into custody. Searches of residences in North Stafford connected to the suspects yielded evidence that included drugs, firearms, and vehicles. A witness at the time of the shooting had reported seeing a dark sedan speeding away from the convenience store parking lot.
The three teenagers faced a host of serious charges, including first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, aggravated malicious wounding, and two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony. It was later revealed that two of the suspects, 17-year-olds Caine Calif Davis and Rustam Fardin, would be tried as adults. Reports indicated that Davis was the alleged shooter and that Troy Barnett Jr. was the intended target. The case against the youngest suspect, the 15-year-old, remained in the juvenile court system. The subsequent legal proceedings for Davis and Fardin were scheduled to be held in Stafford Circuit Court, making them open to the public.
