Wife of 7-Eleven fatal shooting victim calls for deeper background checks on gun buyers

The wife of the man who was shot and killed at a Grandin Village convenience store earlier this month wants lawmakers to “get a tighter hold” on gun violence.

“They need to shift the laws about people having guns,” Krystal Crowder said Tuesday. “That would prevent everything.”

Crowder

Photo courtesy Krystal Crowder

Steven Don Crowder, 31, of Roanoke died on April 16 inside the 7-Eleven in the 1400 block of Grandin Road Southwest.

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Crowder’s wife said he was on his way to work on the night of the shooting when he stopped in the store for cigars.

“We smoke Black and Mild’s, so he was getting the usual Black and Mild’s and his coffee,” she said.

The regional chief medical examiner’s office said Friday that Crowder’s cause of death was due to “gunshot wounds to the neck, back and left forearm.”

Crowder’s family and friends celebrated his life with a candlelit vigil Friday, a cookout Sunday and a funeral service Monday.

Crowder’s wife said she met Crowder at a birthday party 11 years ago. They would have celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary in October. She described him as “goofy” and “soft-spoken.” He enjoyed listening to music and cooking.

“He loved to grill,” she said. “We just bought a new grill like a week before Easter. He was like, ‘Oh, we’re going to get on this today!’ He would literally cook the whole refrigerator, and we’d be eating that food for the rest of the week. He just put everything on the grill.”

Crowder is survived by a 14-year-old son. “His son never had to want for nothing,” she said. “He was an active father in his son’s life. He cut his hair. They played basketball together. His son was his main priority.”

Crowder’s wife, who works as a nurse, favors deeper background checks when it comes to buying weapons, even for “those little guns people get at Walmart.”

“If you’re taking a narcotic, and you’re one of our patients, I can look you up in any state,” she said. “That’s how this should be. When you get a gun, you should be in a database.”

“They need to do a mental health screening, too,” she continued. “These people that have guns, half of them are crazy. Anything can set them off, especially these young kids. They buy guns off of people. Those are the ones that are really doing the shooting.”

Crowder was shot in the leg in April 2016, his wife confirmed. Police said the crime occurred in the parking lot of the A&M Mart at the intersection of Hollins Road and Norton Avenue.

“He was robbed that night,” his wife said. “They took our rent money.”

The following September, he entered a no contest plea in Roanoke Circuit Court on the felony charge and was sentenced to six months in jail. Once released in November 2015, Crowder was placed on supervised probation for one year.

In September 2016, five months after Crowder was shot, a Roanoke probation and parole officer filed a violation report on Crowder.

The report, located in court documents, says Crowder was charged in July 2016 with driving under a revoked or suspended license and with possessing a controlled substance.

For violating the terms of his probation, a capias was issued for Crowder’s arrest, and he was jailed again in September 2016.

Crowder was granted bond the following October, but then six months of his suspended sentence on the felony eluding charge from 2014 and three months of a suspended sentence from a larceny charge dating from 2008 were revoked.

Crowder served eight of those nine months in jail. In May 2017, he was released on the condition that he report back to jail every weekend beginning that June to complete his sentence.

But on June 30, Crowder failed to report as scheduled, according to court documents. Another capias for his arrest was issued on July 10, when Judge David Carson ordered that he be held without bail “and serve his remaining time straight.”

Caldwell has declined to comment further on Baldwin’s pending criminal case, as well as both Baldwin’s and Crowder’s criminal histories.

“I’d be happy to talk about those things after [Baldwin’s] case is concluded,” the prosecutor said.

Baldwin’s next court appearance is scheduled for May 17.

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