A routine child custody exchange on March 2, 2025, ended in deadly violence in the rear parking lot of the Vinton Municipal Building. Thirty-one-year-old Jeffrey Alan Catron of Bedford County was shot and killed during the drop-off; a friend, 29-year-old Brian Christian Sledd, was also killed. Both were pronounced dead at the scene from gunshot wounds.

Authorities say 45-year-old Jordan Daniel Pierce of Salem, the ex-husband of Catron’s fiancée and the father of the three children involved, was at the exchange to drop off the children when an altercation escalated and Pierce fired about 13 rounds. The children’s mother, her three sons, and two nearby Roanoke County firefighters witnessed the shooting. Responding officers found Pierce still at the scene and took him into custody; he was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony and is being held without bond.

Court records show prior conflict: in February 2022 Pierce pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor attempted assault and battery charge involving Catron and received a suspended sentence. The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about the exchange or what led up to it is asked to share what they know.