Inset left: Christian Barrios (St. Johns County Sheriff”s Workplace). Inset proper: Melissa Wooden (GoFundMe). Background: The Walgreens the place Barrios allegedly killed Wooden and her new boyfriend in Ponte Vedra Seashore, Fla. (Google Maps).
A Florida man is behind bars and two individuals are useless as a result of jealous rage, legislation enforcement and household within the Sunshine State say.
Christian Barrios, 32, stands accused of two counts of homicide within the first diploma, housebreaking of an occupied dwelling, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, capturing right into a conveyance, and grand theft of a motorized vehicle, based on the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Workplace.
The capturing took the lifetime of 46-year-old Melissa Wooden and 42-year-old Jason Chatham, who each lived in Atlantic Seashore, a small metropolis situated a number of miles due east of Jacksonville.
The underlying incident occurred on the night time of March 13 at a Walgreens on the A1A Scenic & Historic Coastal Byway in Ponte Vedra Seashore, a big unincorporated suburb of Jacksonville.
Round 10:30 p.m., deputies responded to a number of 911 calls about pictures fired on the pharmacy on the nook of Palm Valley Street, based on St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick.
Each victims had been transported to close by hospitals the place they died, the sheriff stated throughout a press convention, Jacksonville-based unbiased TV station WJXT reported.
The defendant was shortly recognized and tracked by Ok-9 items onto a golf course within the space which is owned by the PGA Tour.
Barrios was arrested the following day in Nassau County after stealing a BMW, crashing the automotive, and fleeing from a neighborhood deputy on foot into the woods, based on the sheriff’s workplace, WJXT reported.
The sheriff described the defendant as a identified prison.
“He’s out of jail once more on probation, committing one other violent felony,” Hardwick stated. “Right here we’re dumping all these assets and households are gonna mourn two those that had been shot and killed in a car parking zone of Walgreens over a home violence scenario.”
The capturing is believed to be the results of romantic envy. Investigators consider Barrios focused Wooden over perceived infidelity.
The alleged assailant bought a experience from his mom, asking her to take him to the placement the place he believed his girlfriend can be discovered with one other man, based on an arrest warrant obtained by WJXT.
The defendant’s mom instructed deputies that her son rode behind her automotive and “frantically jumped out” when he noticed Wooden’s automotive, based on the charging doc. Then, the mom recalled listening to a flurry of gunfire, so she known as 911.
The sufferer’s household stated any relationship between the alleged killer and Wooden was over and finished with by the point of the capturing.
“[M]y superb and one and solely sister, Melissa, was gunned down and shot to demise by an insecure, jealous ex-boyfriend,” the sufferer’s brother, Jeremy Hackward, wrote on a GoFundMe.
The net fundraiser is soliciting donations for funeral preparations, the deceased lady’s excellent payments, and different sudden “monetary obligations” arising from the deadly violence.
Wooden was remembered fondly by her brother.
“She left behind two children, had simply grow to be a grandma barely a yr in the past, and leaves our mom and me grieving her loss,” the GoFundMe continues. “Melissa was such an incredible, outgoing, beneficiant, and compassionate particular person. She by no means judged anybody and would assist a stranger even when she wasn’t in a spot to take action herself. She’d do absolutely anything that can assist you out—that is the form of particular person she was.”
Wooden’s daughter disputed the notion her mom had been untrue in feedback to Jacksonville-based radio station WOKV.
Quite, she stated, she believed her mom was making an attempt to assist Barrios with one thing, whereas acknowledging she didn’t know the total extent of the connection between the 2.
“She had a variety of love to offer,” the slain lady’s daughter stated. “And he or she at all times knew what to do and what to say, even when she did not know. And he or she had two lovely children, and she or he did a extremely good job elevating us. And the one factor I wish to perform is, I simply had a child, he simply turned one, and I’d love to lift him the best way my mother raised me.”
Chatham was lovingly remembered by his niece, Aliya Jade, in a social media put up, WJXT reported.
“I want we may share one other late night time journey strolling the streets of Jax Seashore with no clue on this planet the place we’re going or what we’re doing,” Jade wrote. “I really like you ceaselessly, and I hope you are dancing within the sky having one of the best household reunion there’s. I’ll be sure your gentle by no means goes boring right here on earth when you’re giving heaven one of the best occasion ever. One which I want I had a ticket to.”
