JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Christian Barrios was arrested after leading law enforcement on a multi-county chase that began after a double homicide at a Walgreens in Ponte Vedra, according to arrest reports from the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office and the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office. The shooting happened Friday night, and the pursuit and related incidents unfolded into Saturday morning.
An arrest report from the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office says Barrios has prior convictions. He is awaiting the next steps in his case.
Arrest reports outline the timeline investigators are piecing together. According to the reports, Barrios got a ride to the Walgreens on County Road A1A to confront his girlfriend for alleged infidelity. The driver, whose relation to Barrios is redacted in reports, told investigators they heard multiple gunshots coming from the direction of another car. Law enforcement officers found two people suffering from gunshot wounds at the scene. They were pronounced dead at a hospital.
Police later found a phone that belonged to Barrios abandoned at TPC Sawgrass the report says. At about 4:30 a.m., a burglary was reported not far from the shooting scene; someone entered a home and stole a BMW. That stolen BMW was later located in Nassau County.
Deputies in Nassau County tried to stop that BMW, body-worn camera footage shows. The car fled and eventually crashed. Barrios ran into woods near the crash site and was arrested hours later, officials said.
Gene Nichols, an attorney not associated with the case, shared how a defense attorney might handle the case.
“You’re gonna explore whether or not there are any mental health issues from a mitigation standpoint,” Nichols explained. “But really more than anything, you are doing what you can to potentially try and avoid what is coming, which is an indictment from a grand jury in St. Johns County for first degree murder and seeking the death penalty.”
Barrios will remain in the Nassau County jail until he is transferred back to St. Johns County.
“It’s a tragedy that he clearly had some form of intent to carry out whether or not you plan to go as far as he did. It doesn’t really matter. The fact he walked into that scenario with that gun with the intent to confront them, is going to lead a grand jury to most likely indict him at some point in time in the near future.”
Barrios faces charges in both counties. In St. Johns County, he faces six charges, including two counts of first-degree murder. In Nassau County, he faces six charges, including grand theft of a motor vehicle, aggravated fleeing with injury or damage, and reckless driving.