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New details emerge after ‘war hero’ dad killed at Chesterfield Wawa

Posted at 1:15 PM, Mar 26, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-26 13:21:15-04

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — In a preliminary hearing Tuesday, a Chesterfield judge found probable cause to certify all charges against suspected Wawa shooter George Buschmann.

Buschmann is with first-degree murder in the January shooting death of veteran Robert Gooch.

Gooch, 34, was shot and killed in front of his 13-year-old daughter outside the Wawa on Otterdale Station Way.

Buschmann's case will now go before a Grand Jury.

In a Chesterfield courtroom Tuesday, Gooch’s family watched as Buschmann went before a judge. Gooch’s daughter was in attendance.

Several people gave testimonies, including a man who said he was at an Exxon gas station when his car was stolen.

Prosecutors indicated it was the same vehicle Buschmann was driving following the shooting.

Detective Jim Barrett was one of several Chesterfield law enforcement officers who gave testimony. He said he watched the shooting unfold on Wawa’s security camera footage.

Barrett said the video showed Bushmann pull up in a silver vehicle near the Wawa gas pumps at 7:02 p.m. He then went inside.

Once inside, he said the video show Buschmann at the register where he began to focus on Gooch and his daughter. Barrett said Buschmann went to the restroom, then exited the Wawa.

At 7:08 p.m., the video showed Buschmann remove something (that looked like a firearm) from his vehicle. Barrett said Buschmann got out of the car with that object in his hands.

He said in the video footage the object jolts, and Gooch — who had walked outside with his daughter — flinches then falls.

George Thomas Buschmann

George Thomas Buschmann

Barrett said Buschmann lowered his arms, and walked back to the vehicle. Then later, after Gooch got up, Barrett said Buschmann walked back to where he had been standing, and fired again — shattering the glass window.

After that, Barrett said Buschmann drove away in the silver vehicle.

After Buschmann’s arrest Barrett testified that he and another law enforcement officer interviewed him. During that interview Buschmann confirmed he was at the Wawa, and referenced Gooch and his daughter as ‘the man and girl.’ Barrett also testified Buschmann said he feared for his life, and believed Gooch had an armored vehicle with weapons inside — all of which police confirmed was not true.

Barrett testified that Buschmann also said in that interview, that -- following the shooting -- he believed he had hit the victim (Robert Gooch) a couple times in the head, because that’s where he was aiming. Buschmann also admitted to picking up two firearms at his father’s home in Buckingham County to ‘protect himself’ before all of this, according to Barrett.

Barrett added that Bushhman came across as calm, lucid, and polite in that interview.

Buschmann suffers from a variety of mental health issues, his sister told CBS 6 in a January interview, but she said she could not see him hurting someone else.

Buschmann is set to go before a Grand Jury on charges of first-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, grand larceny of a motor vehicle, felony eluding, possession of a firearm after being involuntary committed, and transporting a firearm while being subject to a protective order.

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