Traffic Spat Victim Had Pregnant Wife

A surprise baby shower planned for today won’t be held.

Instead, Gloria Sanchez’s mother, sisters and brother will be in a hospital maternity ward keeping a close eye on the young woman, who is due next week. She was hospitalized early after learning that her husband had been shot to death.

Marco Anthony Sanchez, 24, was shot and killed on a Pacific Beach street Thursday, and Howard Barton Jr. was booked on suspicion of murder. He was being held without bail in County Jail, said Sgt. Ray E. Sigwalt of the San Diego Police Department.

Sanchez’s death, stemming from a heated exchange of words in traffic, has left his in-laws in shock.

“People tell you things all the time when you are driving,” said his mother-in-law, Nellie Goodwin, as she wiped her tears with a paper towel. “But that doesn’t mean you can shoot them.”

Sanchez was on his way to send some packages to Goodwin’s family in Texas, she said, from a store in the 1000 block of Garnet Avenue, that is owned by Goodwin’s husband.

It all began about 10 a.m. at Grand Avenue and Ingraham Street in Pacific Beach. Riding with Sanchez was one of his sisters-in-law. In a car in front of them was Andrea Barton, 20.

“The lady was in front of us and she was going really slow, so Marco honked,” said Sanchez’s 12-year-old sister-in-law. “Then she went fast and slammed on her brake. . . . Marco got in front of her and she tried to cut him off.”

The two drivers traded insults, she said, with each one trying to get in front of the other. Police reports said Barton’s car had been stalled in traffic.

“She gave him the finger, and he gave her the finger and it was just going back and forth,” said the 12-year-old girl.

“She turned off, and . . . Marco spit on her car, on her window. And I guess she saw where we parked. When we parked, she went and got her dad.”

They unloaded some of the boxes and took them into a Garnet Avenue store where they were going to mail them. Then Sanchez told the girl that Andrea Barton had come back with her father, Howard Barton.

After Sanchez left the store, he walked into a nearby sporting goods shop and the Bartons followed him. The three of them argued inside the sports shop, then stepped outside. Sanchez then got into his car.

A witness to the shooting said that he saw Barton yelling into the driver’s window.

“He (Barton) was over on the driver’s side and he had a gun out. And he was yelling at the guy to get out of the car that he was going to shoot him,” Daryl Zack, who manages a store on Garnet Avenue, said Friday.

“He said that, I think, twice. Then, there was a little pause. The next thing I heard him say was, ‘Put the knife down or I’m gonna shoot you.’ He might have said it one more time. Right after he said it, there was a pop.”

Sanchez got out of the car then staggered back into the store where his sister-in-law was. “He came in . . . he just fell on the floor,” the 12-year-old said.

Howard Barton is a real estate agent who works out of an office in the 4900 block of Cass Street. Two agents who share the office with him were stunned by the shooting.

They both declined to give their names, but one of them said of Barton: “He’s a good, solid family man. . . . His father was a gentleman and so is he.” Barton, 46, is a La Jolla resident.

A clerk at the sporting goods store where the three people argued, Melissa Kropp, said she has known Andrea Barton since high school. Although she does not know the father very well, Kropp described Andrea Barton as “just a normal person.”

Sgt. Sigwalt said Sanchez was shot in the upper right back.

Sanchez was described by his mother-in-law as a good young man who took care of her daughter. Her daughter and Sanchez met about five years ago, were married in June and lived in National City.

“I’ve never seen her so happy,” she said.

She said that Sanchez treated Gloria’s 6-year-old son as if the child were his own. “He took him everywhere,” she said. And if Sanchez could not be found, it was because he was playing Nintendo with the little boy.

“He had so many plans,” Goodwin said. She said Sanchez planned to build her a gazebo and plant a garden for her. “Now it’s just half way,” she said.