By Josephine E. Moore
The Register-Herald, Beckley, W.Va.
BECKLEY, W. Va. — An unidentified man was shot and killed by law enforcement officers Wednesday morning near the Crossroads Mall in Beckley.
The West Virginia State Police and the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department, who were on the scene for several hours, have not released any information about the incident.
It was also not made clear which agency is in charge of the investigation though Raleigh County Sheriff Scott Van Meter informed The Register-Herald at 4:18 p.m. Wednesday that a press release would not be issued until Thursday.
While details from law enforcement are scant, a number of videos, recorded by private citizens, have made their way to social media sites.
One of the videos, which appears to have been filmed from inside a vehicle stopped on the U.S. 19 off-ramp, shows the shooting.
Carrying a handgun, the man — slender with long hair and dressed in sweatpants, a sweatshirt and tennis shoes — leads officers through a ditch on the north side of Robert C. Byrd Drive near the on-ramp to U.S. 19 and up and onto the northbound lanes.
He had apparently run his car off Bradley School Road and into the ditch as police pursued.
The video, which is just under a minute long, shows the man walking away from police and continuing in the direction of U.S. 19 with a gun in his right hand.
Nearly a dozen police officers can be seen walking toward the man with guns drawn as he continues to walk down the roadway.
In the video the man’s movements appear to be erratic as he goes from putting his hands in the air, to pointing his gun at his head and then repeating these motions.
At another time soon after, he crouches, folding his arms around his head, then rises back up quickly and continues walking away from police and toward other civilian vehicles.
Seconds later he motions with his hand to vehicles in the southbound lanes before turning to face the police who are beginning to surround him.
It appears that both of his arms are at his side as police begin to fire an unknown number of rounds in his direction, which causes the man to curl forward and fall to the ground.
Police move forward and continue to fire at the man as he rolls to his stomach and becomes motionless.
The person taking the video can be heard saying, “Oh my God,” repeatedly just before the video ends.
A separate video, taken earlier in the day by a home surveillance camera, has also surfaced and shows the man trying to enter a residence in Beckley. The video is less than 30 seconds and shows the man walking up to a house, opening a screen door and then attempting to enter the house, which appears locked. The man then runs toward the road as the video cuts off.
All four lanes of Robert C. Byrd Drive near the mall were closed for several hours as more than a dozen vehicles from the West Virginia State Police and the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department were on scene.
At about 1 p.m., vehicles with the sheriff’s office could be seen leaving the scene.
At about the same time, a tow truck hauled away a dark blue Chevrolet pickup that the man had driven into the ditch as his body, lying on the road and covered by a white sheet, was removed from the scene.
An hour later, the roadway reopened.
(c)2022 The Register-Herald (Beckley, W.Va.)