HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- Henrico County recorded four homicides in the first 10 days of the new year.
One of those homicides was that of 29-year-old Spencer Bartee, a Sandston post office employee, and former Capitol police officer and Department of Corrections officer.
"He's not going to be able to see his son do those things he wanted him to do in life," Bartee's mother said.
Flanked by family and friends, Bartee's mother, says she is glad she has a support system to lean on during the days and months of grieving that lie for her ahead.
"I'm another mother standing here saying when does it stop?" she asked. "Until we as a society, a people, and a whole get to the point where lives matter, all lives, it just has to stop."
Bartee was one of two people police say wereshot to death Tuesday nightwhile driving through the St. Luke's apartments off Engleside Drive in Henrico County.
Bartee's mother believes her son was the one driving, and that the second victim, 20-year-old Domonique Swan, was in the passenger seat. She says she does not know who Swan was, and why the two were in that area.
"He wasn't a gangbanger. He was a mentor. His passion was giving back to people," she said.
Bartee, known as a gentle giant, was a former Capitol police officer and correctional officer. He spent his short adult life in service to his state and community.
Only a couple of years ago his son was born.
"When my grandson is calling for his daddy, he's not going to be here," Bartee's mother said.
She says she has a message for her son's killer.
"You may have taken my son, but you didn't take my soul. I gave him back to the one who gave him to me and that is God. So when I looked at him, he was at peace. You may have taken his life but you didn't take me. What you took from me is the 7 a.m. calls that I get in the morning when he goes to work and the conversations we had. I can't get that back."
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