CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – A 74-year-old man, 19-year-old man and 17-year-old juvenile male were injured in a shooting incident in the parking lot of the Wawa at 5th St. Station early Thursday morning, Charlottesville Police Department announced during a briefing Thursday afternoon.
CPD has identified the suspect as 20-year-old Nysoun Gardner, a convicted felon, and police are now searching for him.
CPD responded to a report of gunshots in the area of 5th St. SW and 5th St. Station Parkway at approximately 1:37 a.m. and immediately applied tourniquets to all three victims. All three are now in stable condition.
“This rapid response is believed to have been instrumental in saving all three lives,” Chief of Police Michael Kochis said during a press conference Thursday. “And I couldn’t be more proud of the officers who saved those lives this morning.”
Gardner, a previously convicted felon, has been charged with three counts of malicious wounding, three counts of use of a firearm in commission of a felony and one count of possession of a firearm as a felon.
According to court records, Gardner was previously convicted on two felony counts of forgery from Sept. 2024. Gardner pled guilty to both counts in Waynesboro Circuit Court in April and was sentenced to three years of supervised probation. He is currently due to make his next appearance in Waynesboro Circuit Court on Dec. 11 to review restitution.
Kochis said Thursday’s incident was the result of “an initial beef” between two individuals, which led to Gardner firing shots from his vehicle.
“A lot of our shootings that we’re seeing stem from petty beefs,” Kochis said. “It’s not as a result of a drug trade of a robbery or something like that. Just stems from petty beef, which makes this very complicated.”
While police are still working through the information available, Kochis did confirm the 74-year-old victim, an employee of Wawa who was on break at the time, was not involved with the altercation.
Kochis described the detective and forensic work since the incident as “dogged,” saying the detectives and prosecutors were called in at 2 a.m. and “haven’t stopped running since.”
“It’s not done,” Kochis said. “Those folks, they’ll sit up there, they’ll be up there for probably the next two days working on this case because there’s so much work that still needs to be done.
“We have a suspect who’s still out on the run. We need to find him. We need to get him off the street. It’d be great if he turned himself in, that’d be wonderful, but I live in a world of reality, and the reality is we’re probably gonna have to go find him.”
CPD has urged anyone with information regarding Gardner or this case to contact the department.
