A 68-year-old man shot and killed Dec. 19 in a marsh behind a home on Lakeside Drive represented the Powhatan District of the James City County Board of Supervisors for one four-year term in the 1970s.
David Ware Jr. was out hunting a fox, following it into the marsh behind 1900 Lakeside Drive. Investigators from the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office say a 21-year-old resident of the house, Brandon Bartlett, was unloading his hunting gear from his truck when he saw movement from the marsh and assumed it was a deer, prompting the fatal shotgun blast.
Ware’s political career in the county lasted less than five years. James City County records indicate he represented the Powhatan District on the board of supervisors from 1976 until 1979.
Annual reports issued by the county during Ware’s tenure on the board show his service coming at a time when the county was grappling with the inflation of the 1970s, a rapidly growing population and how land use should be managed.
Jack Edwards, who represented the Berkeley District during Ware’s time on the board, said Ware served one complete term. Ware’s re-election bid was stymied by Perry M. DePue.
“He felt strongly about land-use issues,” Edwards said, saying Ware believed the county should not be too strongly involved with how land is used.
The Powhatan District he represented was far more rural than the current district. During the time around Ware’s service, the county was implementing the first parts of its zoning ordinance, which governs how land can be used.
His single term also saw the beginning of full-time operations by the county’s fire department, the extension of sewer services to Toano and the start of a public transit service.
Ware also mounted a challenge in 1977 against incumbent Democrat George Grayson for the House of Delegates seat containing James City County, however he lost that race after accumulating 36 percent of the vote, according to records from the Virginia Elections and State Elected Officials Database Project.
Ware spent much of his life in the Historic Triangle, from his earliest days when he attended Matthew Whaley and James Blair, to his adult life, when he owned businesses — including a construction company and a business that specialized in containers — and managed the Colonial Towne Plaza Shopping Center in Lightfoot, according to his obituary.
He left behind a wife, two daughters, a stepson and six grandchildren, along with many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.
Following the shooting, Bartlett was charged with second-degree murder. He was issued a $25,000 secured bond Monday in York-Poquoson General District Court.
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