Woman shot outside of Walmart dies, domestic partner charged with murder

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, 37-year-old Jean Bryant of the Belmont Court area of Hampton, was shot around 9:30 a.m. Thursday outside the store, at 2601 George Washington Memorial Highway.

She was transported to Riverside Regional Medical Center, where she died at 12:30 p.m., according to Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Shawn Kekoa-Dearhart.

Cindy N. 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, and is now being held without bond at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail.

York-Poquson Sheriff J.D. “Danny” Diggs said the Bryants were “domestic partners.”

“We don’t know if they were legally married, but they were using the same last name,” he told the Daily Press. “They had been having a spat in the last last few weeks. … They had been arguing for some time is what we’ve heard.”

Deputies said an altercation started inside the optometry office, but the shooting occurred in the parking lot.

Diggs clarified later that Jean 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.

“Cindy Bryant abducted Jean Bryant from her work area, and they both ended up being in the front area of the Walmart parking lot, near the main entrances,” Kekoa-Dearhart wrote in a news release later Thursday.

Jean Bryant was shot in her stomach area multiple times, officials said.

A deputy happened to be pulling into the parking lot, saw the shooting in the parking lot and quickly took the woman into custody, Diggs said. Another deputy arrived and began to perform first aid on the victim.

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. “This is an isolated incident between two persons who knew each other and were have a personal dispute,” Kekoa-Dearhart added.

Diggs said additional charges may be pending pertaining to some other employees of the optometry office.

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 works 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.

Daily Press reporter Peter Dujardin contributed to this report.

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