On a Sunday morning in April 2016, 34-year-old Gabriel Ryan Maness was fatally shot while grocery shopping at a Farm Fresh in the Norge area of Williamsburg, Virginia. Maness, a Providence Forge resident, was a married father with a young daughter and another child expected. Friends and family remembered him as compassionate and generous; his death was described as an apparently random act of violence that deeply affected the local community.

Fifty-five-year-old Brian Alexander Hicks of Woodbridge, a retired U.S. Air Force veteran, was arrested at the scene and found in possession of a .45 caliber handgun and two additional loaded magazines. Investigators reported that Hicks and Maness did not know each other and that no apparent altercation preceded the shooting. At trial in May 2017, psychologists testified to a history of mental illness, including bipolar disorder with psychotic features, and that Hicks had been exhibiting erratic, manic behavior and believed he was on a divine mission and that Maness was a threat.

A judge found Brian Alexander Hicks not guilty by reason of insanity on charges of second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony; he was committed to the custody of the Virginia Department of Behavioral and Mental Health for evaluation and treatment. Does anyone have information about Gabriel Maness’s life in Providence Forge or who might remember him that could help preserve his memory?