Friends, loved ones remember Paddock Mall shooting victim

[Courtesy of David Barron’s Facebook]

Friends of David Nathaniel Barron, 40, who died in a shooting at the Paddock Mall on Dec. 23, were shocked and surprised by the loss.

An unidentified woman also suffered non-life-threatening injuries to her leg in the 3:40 p.m. shooting, according to the Ocala Police Department.

“I didn’t believe it. I just kept praying that there was some mistake,” stated Michael Kelley, 40, a close friend of Barron’s since 5th grade in Ocala in an email Sunday

Kelley called the shooting “crazy.”

(Marion County Jail records indicate multiple arrests of a 40-year-old man with the same full name as the deceased, with the most recent arrest in 2019. The arrest could not immediately be confirmed as the deceased.)

Kelley said although he did not know Barron to use drugs himself,  Barron may have been at one time swept up into the drug trade by seeing the money made by others.

“He wanted to be better; (Barron) knew he wasted a lot of years,” Kelley said.

Kelley said since 2020, he thought Barron was undergoing a “self-evaluation” aimed at getting his life on track and described Barron as committed and working hard to open his own tattoo shop.

“David was trying to straighten his life out and get his tattoo business going. He was a great dad,” Kelley said in a phone interview.

Kelley said Barron’s children range in age from perhaps age 2 years to late teens.

“David would give you the shirt off his back,” Kelley said.

Kelley is currently living in Alabama but was communicating with Barron daily by phone and Facebook and spoke with him earlier on the day of the shooting.

An Ocala woman who first met Barron as one of a group of friends in high school who occasionally visited a local skating rink also spoke to the “Gazette.”

The woman asked for her name to not be used.

She was not aware of the arrests evidently involving Barron.

“(Barron) was an excellent tattoo artist. He did my third tattoo and it was amazing and I know he was an amazing father who loves his kids,” she wrote in a text.

“I know that everybody goes through something, and the only way to overcome it is to keep pushing,” she stated.

The woman stated on the day of the shooting she was about to head to the mall with her son when her daughter texted her a message about the shoot and she soon heard Barron was the victim

“David was very genuine (and) always offered to help. I pray for him his kids and his family at this difficult time,” she wrote.

OPD issued a warrant for Albert J. Shell, 29, for premeditated first-degree murder and attempted premeditated first-degree murder in connection with the case and posted the wanted man’s photo on Facebook around 3 p.m. on Dec 24.

As of 4:45 p.m. on Dec. 27, Shell is still at large and yet to be apprehended by law enforcement

A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the capture of the suspect, according to OPD public information officer Jeff Walczak.

OPD may be reached at (352) 656-6137

Or call Ocala Crime Stoppers at (352) 368-7867