Greg Baylor Was The Only Person Garcia Shot On Criminal Minds

Most of the main characters in Criminal Minds are relatively trigger-happy, but Penelope Garcia only shot one person throughout the whole series – rogue sheriff and serial killer Greg Baylor. Kirsten Vangsness’ Criminal Minds character Penelope Garcia has been an audience favorite since the procedural crime drama started airing on CBS back in 2005. The quirky hacker extraordinaire is an integral part of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (AKA the BAU), serving as its technical analyst and helping her colleagues solve crimes by gathering vital intel about unsubs (“unknown subjects”) and their victims throughout the show’s run.

Due to the nature of her job, Garcia spends most of her time in Criminal Minds behind a desk in her lab at the BAU’s headquarters in Quantico, Virginia while the rest of her team takes off on missions to apprehend the dangerous unsubs. This set-up suits Garcia perfectly as the harrowing crimes the team investigates often upset her, so having a comfort zone away from the main action allows her to do what she does best while being somewhat shielded from the more gruesome realities of the job. She’s not a fan of guns either, so staying out of the team’s more direct dealings with criminals is for the best.

That said, Garcia occasionally finds herself playing a more direct role in the BAU team’s missions. In a two-episode story from Criminal Minds season 3, for example, Garcia goes on a date with a seemingly nice guy named Jason Clarke Battle (Bailey Chase) who turns out to be a serial killer and almost fatally shoots her when he thinks she’s on to him. Later, when Jason attempts to kill Garcia again, her BAU colleague and best pal Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore) insists she takes a gun to protect herself while he deals with Jason. That was the first time that Garcia ever wielded a gun in the series, although she wasn’t forced to use it on that occasion. In fact, the only person Garcia ever actually shot was Greg Baylor during Criminal Minds season 9.

Played by Potsch Boyd, Greg Baylor first appeared in the Criminal Minds season 9 finale “Demons.” He was part of a ring of corrupt sheriff’s deputies led by Owen McGregor (Michael Trucco) that orchestrated a series of murders in Texas and was ordered to kill the BAU’s resident genius Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) after he witnessed Greg fleeing a crime scene. To that end, Greg went undercover as a nurse at the hospital where Spencer was recovering from a gunshot wound sustained in the previous episode to take him out. Luckily, Garcia was at the hospital looking after Spencer and managed to stop Baylor with a non-fatal shot from Spencer’s revolver before he could carry out his plans – proving she’s not afraid to rise to the occasion when it comes to protecting one of her team.

Criminal Minds came to an end in 2020 after an incredible 15-season run and its series finale saw the very quotable Penelope Garcia leave the BAU for a new gig at a non-profit. However, in early 2021 news broke that CBS streaming service Paramount+ was reviving Criminal Minds for a limited 10-episode run that is set to feature the return of several cast members including David Rossi actor Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook as Jennifer “JJ” Jareau, and – of course – Kirsten Vangsness reprising her role as Garcia. Little is known about the plot of the Criminal Minds revival, but the likelihood of Garcia shooting somebody again is low – unless one of her team members is in trouble, that is.