Va. Standoff Ends With Father's Death

Police Shoot Alexandria Man Barricaded in Home With Abducted Son, 9

By Leef Smith and Brigid Schulte

Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 28, 2005; Page A01

It had been a tense 20-hour standoff and a full day of emotional negotiations with a carpenter who abducted his 9-year-old son at gunpoint Tuesday evening and holed up in his Alexandria home.

But then Lewis W. Barber, 48, suddenly walked out onto his front porch yesterday afternoon and waved his gun at police. They shot him and he collapsed. Special operations officers rushed into the house and within minutes had rescued Barber's son, Phillip, and returned him to his mother. Lewis Barber was pronounced dead at 5:15 p.m.

Carrying a toy car, Phillip Barber, 9, who was in his Del Ray home for 20 hours while his father held police at bay, is escorted to safety by officers. (By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post) Photos Alexandria Standoff Turns Deadly Police fatally shot an armed man after he abducted his son and held him hostage for 20 hours. The 9-year-old boy was found unharmed.

"He forced their hand," said Capt. John Crawford, an Alexandria police spokesman. "It's an unfortunate thing it ended tragically for that family, but the officer had no other choice."

The standoff began shortly after 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, when Barber snatched his son at gunpoint from his estranged wife on King Street in Old Town Alexandria after learning that she was going to leave him.

All day in the tightly knit Del Ray community, no one could quite believe that Barber, a fixture along West Wyatt Avenue for years, was the one who news broadcasts were saying had kidnapped his son. Dazed neighbors in Del Ray -- once a working-class section of Alexandria that in recent years has become a trendy home to professional families -- skirted the police barricades blocking several neighborhood streets. Parents worriedly escorted their children to the nearby elementary school, greeted by School Board member Arthur E. Schmalz, who just wanted to make sure everyone was calm.

Friends described Barber as a quiet man who had strong views and held fast to them. Nora Partlow, owner of St. Elmo's Coffee Pub, the local gathering place, said she had known Barber for more than 20 years, back in the days when she was bartending at the old Snuggery Cafe.

"He was a devoted father," she said as shocked neighbors gathered to share news and disbelief over coffee and muffins. "And not seeing his son -- well, he felt that just wasn't right."

Police worked through the night and day to end the standoff. Four blocks were immediately cordoned off, trapping some residents who did not want to leave their homes until a police escort could ferry them out later. Neighbors spent the night listening to police sirens and hostage negotiators bark at Barber's home through a bullhorn as they tried to establish contact. In the morning, police were able to establish a link over a cell phone, but communication was sporadic and emotional, police said.

Just minutes before a loud boom resonated through the tranquil neighborhood, Partlow and other friends of Barber's had been trying to round up a mediation lawyer to send to help him out. "We were thinking, maybe if he had someone he could talk to who knew him . . . "

Barber's estranged wife, Robin, had gone to court Friday for a protective order to keep her husband away from her and her son, according to court records. She planned to leave town the next day and stated that her husband did not know she was going. She said she feared for their safety in a home that contained guns.

She described her husband as "a very quiet man and very unpredictable," adding that he had a drinking problem. She told the court about an incident in 1998 when she planned to leave him and he allegedly went into their attic and fired two shots.

The protective order was granted, barring Lewis Barber from contact with his wife or his son. On Saturday, police accompanied Robin Barber to collect belongings at her home.

Lewis Barber filed a response in Alexandria's Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, saying he and Robin -- whose name he wrote with a heart -- had been together since January 1992.

"While she may have made me mad, I have never harmed or threatened harm," Lewis Barber wrote.

Carrying a toy car, Phillip Barber, 9, who was in his Del Ray home for 20 hours while his father held police at bay, is escorted to safety by officers. (By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post) Photos Alexandria Standoff Turns Deadly Police fatally shot an armed man after he abducted his son and held him hostage for 20 hours. The 9-year-old boy was found unharmed. _____Free E-mail Newsletters_____  Today's Headlines & Columnists See a Sample  |  Sign Up Now  Breaking News Alerts See a Sample  |  Sign Up Now

He went on to identify his guns as Civil War or Revolutionary War reenactment pieces. He said his wife had the family's "modern pistol," a .38 special, which he said his wife got him for their 10th anniversary.

"As for my drinking," Lewis Barber wrote, "that's a lie."

William Elliott was a close friend of Barber's and a fellow member of the Washington carpenter's union, of which Barber was president.

He said Barber had been married previously and had two other sons. And he was struggling with a loss. One son died of a brain tumor when he was a child. The other son, who is 21, is about to be shipped out to Iraq. The thought of losing another son, Elliott and other friends said, was just too much. "The reason he may have snapped . . . was I think he feared losing this child" in a custody battle, Elliott said.

Last night, Barber was remembered by friends and co-workers as a devoted father who parented with a firm but loving hand. Friends said he would take his youngest son sledding when it snowed and was known around the neighborhood for being an enthusiastic Little League coach for the Mount Vernon Fireballs, encouraging his players to sleep with their baseball mitts under their pillows so they would "dream of baseball."

On the streets of Del Ray yesterday, even little boys riding bikes whispered solemnly. "He was a good man. He was a hero, you know," they said.

In September 2003, Barber was hailed for helping to capture a hit-and-run driver who struck and killed a woman in the District. Barber was on his bicycle at the time, leaving a job remodeling a law office, when he witnessed the crash.

Witnesses told The Washington Post that Barber gave chase on his bicycle in heavy traffic until the driver was forced to surrender.

When news of the hostage situation reached Dohmen, he raced toward Barber's home with one of Barber's close friends. The men wanted to talk with him, reassure him. They were never able to make contact.

"Everyone is just very sad," Dohmen said.

Staff writers Karin Brulliard and Jamie Stockwell and researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.