On the night of July 3, 2019, Troy Daniel Barnett Jr., a 20-year-old man from Stafford, Virginia, was fatally shot in the parking lot of the 5 Twelve convenience store on Garrisonville Road at about 10:15 p.m. An 18-year-old woman, Laura Guadalupe Gomez-De La Cruz, was also found unresponsive with life-threatening gunshot wounds to her upper body; Barnett was pronounced dead at the scene.

A five-week investigation by the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office produced more than 50 search warrants and led 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 linked to the suspects recovered drugs, firearms, and vehicles. A witness had reported seeing a dark sedan speeding away from the parking lot.

Two of the suspects, identified as 17-year-olds Caine Calif Davis and Rustam Fardin, were later to be tried as adults, with reports naming Davis as the alleged shooter and Barnett as the intended target. The youngest suspect remained in juvenile court.