Police: Suspect in custody after woman shot at Tabb Walmart

A woman is being charged with murder after an employee at an optometry office in the Tabb Walmart in York County was shot and killed Thursday morning in the store’s parking lot, according to the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office.

The employee, 27-year-old Jean Bryant of the Belmont Court area of Hampton, was shot shortly before 9:30 a.m. Thursday, and she was transported to a local hospital where she died, according to Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Shawn Kekoa-Dearhart.

Cindy Bryant, 34, of the 2000 block of Winfree Road in Hampton was taken into custody shortly after the shooting. She is charged with first degree murder, abduction and two counts of use of a firearm in commission of a felony.

Deputies said the altercation happened inside the store, but the shooting happened in the parking lot.

York-Poquoson Sheriff J.D. “Danny” Diggs clarified around 11:30 a.m. that Bryant was “abducted” by a woman with a gun from the optometry office in Walmart. Witnesses told police the suspect charged at the woman, Kekoa-Dearhart said.

The victim was taken out into the parking lot, where she was shot in her stomach area multiple times, officials said. Diggs called it a “personal relationship kind of dispute” and did not know how many shots were fired or how many time the victim was hit.

A deputy happened to be at the store, saw the shooting in the parking lot and quickly took the woman into custody, Diggs said.

The Walmart remained closed until about 2:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the sheriff’s office.

Deputies were escorting shoppers out of the store one by one after the suspect was in custody. A small crowd was waiting outside the store to pick up people who were inside.

Monica Hall, who was at the Walmart anxiously trying to get information, said Thursday that her daughter called hysterically from within the store. Hall said that all she could hear was "shooter." Hall came straight from work in Williamsburg to get to the store and learned that her daughter was safe, she said.

The daughter, Brenda Towner, was working in the bakery. Hall said with the way things are and being a mom, she feared the worst. About 10:30 a.m., Hall was waiting for her daughter to come out of the store.

Uriel Barnes came to pick up his son, Uriel Barnes Jr., who worked at the Walmart. His son was still in the store about 10:45 a.m., but the father said that his son was OK — he spoke with his son by phone and he was calm. His son told him that people were being let out one by one.

Uriel Barnes Jr. exited the story about 11:20 a.m. — he said he wasn’t going back to work Thursday, according to the father.

Megan Pile was in the store with her 10-month-old daughter when she saw people running. She said that she followed the crowd.

Pile said that her car was still in the parking lot, so her husband had to come get her and the baby.

Tabb Middle School was placed on a brief modified lockdown just after 10 a.m. as a precautionary measure due to the school's proximity to Walmart, said division spokeswoman Katherine Goff.

“We remain in close contact with the (York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office), but as they have the suspect in custody we have not been advised to adjust beyond our normal security procedures,” Goff said.

Classes continued as normal during a modified lockdown, Goff said, but access to the building and movement inside the school was strictly controlled and limited. Within minutes, Goff said, notification came that the suspect was in custody and the school resumed its normal operations. The school notified parents about the brief lockdown, she said.

No other information is available from the Sheriff’s Office at this time.

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