Shooting Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Wounded Trooper Back Home After December Shooting

After being shot four times and losing part of his leg, West Virginia State Trooper Abe Bean continues to recuperate back in his Berkeley County home.

Pictures and a video posted Wednesday on the West Virginia Troopers Association Facebook page shows dozens of troopers escorting Bean home from a Fairfax, Virginia hospital. Troopers are also seen surrounding Bean’s front door. Bean had been at the hospital since mid-December.

Bean’s leg was amputated above the knee at the Virginia facility after he received multiple gunshot wounds while attempting to serve an arrest warrant on Tobias Ganey Dec. 17. Bean also had surgery on his arm. Trooper Cadin Spessert was shot once in the incident and has recovered from his wound.

Police said Ganey was being charged with domestic battery against a neighbor. They said when he proved uncooperative, the Eastern Panhandle troopers made a forced entry into Ganey’s Martinsburg home. Ganey immediately began firing at the troopers who returned fire. Ganey died at the scene.

West Virginia State Police said an investigation is ongoing.

Trooper Faces Leg Amputation After Shooting In Eastern Panhandle

One of the troopers involved in the Martinsburg shooting Sunday has lost part of his leg.

Updated on Tuesday Dec. 19, 2023 at 11:48 a.m.

One of the troopers involved in the Martinsburg shooting Sunday has lost part of his leg.

West Virginia State Police Maj. James Mitchell has verified that part of Trooper Abe Bean’s left leg had to be amputated at the Inova Fairfax Medical Center in Virginia.

Mitchell said Bean was shot in the chest, in the shoulder and took two rounds in the leg. Doctors had to amputate his left leg above the knee. Bean remains in critical condition. Mitchell said Trooper Cadin Spessert, who was shot once in the Sunday night incident, has been released from the hospital.

Mitchell said that Bean’s father, a retired state trooper, posted a message on Facebook that said his son’s first surgery lasted for eight hours from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday. Mitchell said the amputation came after that.

Mitchell verified that dozens of West Virginia troopers and state police from Virginia have been at the hospital to show support. Mitchell said State Police Superintendent Col. Jack Chambers visited Bean Monday. There was also a prayer service led by state police current and former chaplains.

Updated on Monday Dec. 18, 2023 at 2:25 p.m.

As of Monday afternoon, after being shot four times, Trooper A.A. Bean remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition. Trooper C.D. Spessert was shot once and was stable.

West Virginia State Police Chief of Staff Major Jim Mitchell said he is hopeful Trooper Bean will survive.

“We hope that he’s going to survive it just fine,” Mitchell said. “It’s just at this point and early into the treatment, you just don’t know how things could transpire for good or perhaps, to make things more complex, but we do appreciate the prayers.”

Mitchell said when Tobias Ganey refused to open his door or come outside after an extended time of negotiations, the troopers had no choice but to gain entry. Mitchell said that’s when gunfire began.

“We won’t try to shoot someone unless we just have to,” Mitchell said. “In this case, as soon as the door was open, they received fire.”

Ganey died at the scene. Mitchell said the warrant was apparently for Ganey committing battery against his neighbor. An incident investigation remains underway.

Original Story

Two Eastern Panhandle State Police troopers are in the hospital after a shots-fired incident late Sunday evening in Martinsburg.

A State Police press release notes Trooper A.A. Bean was shot four times and Trooper C.D. Spessert was shot once while attempting to serve an arrest warrant on a battery charge to 60-year-old Tobias Ganey.

Just before 11 p.m., police say Ganey refused to open the door of his home. The troopers communicated with Ganey for an extended time, and finally made entry into the home to make the arrest. Ganey immediately began firing his handgun at the troopers, who returned fire.

Ganey died at the scene.

Trooper Bean underwent surgery for serious injuries; Trooper Spessert was treated and admitted for observation.

Both Troopers are in stable condition this morning and the investigation is ongoing.

White Supremacist Admits Threatening Jury And Witnesses In Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter’s Trial

A self-proclaimed white supremacist has pleaded guilty to charges that he made online threats toward the jury and witnesses at the trial of a man who killed 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

A self-proclaimed white supremacist pleaded guilty Tuesday to making online threats toward the jury and witnesses at the trial of a man who killed 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue, the U.S. Justice Department said.

As part of his plea agreement in federal court for West Virginia’s northern district, Hardy Carroll Lloyd admitted that the actual or perceived Jewish faith of the government witnesses and victims in the trial of Robert Bowers prompted him to target the jury and witnesses.

Lloyd, 45, of Follansbee, West Virginia, faces more than six years in prison if the plea agreement is accepted by the court.

The Justice Department described Lloyd as a self-proclaimed leader of a white supremacy movement. Prosecutors said Lloyd, who was arrested on Aug. 10, sent threatening social media posts and emails along with comments on websites during Bowers’ trial. Lloyd pleaded guilty to obstruction of the due administration of justice.

Bowers was sentenced to death last month after a jury determined that capital punishment was appropriate.

“Hardy Lloyd attempted to obstruct the federal hate crimes trial of the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “His guilty plea underscores that anyone who attempts to obstruct a federal trial by threatening or intimidating jurors or witnesses will be met with the full force of the Justice Department.”

In May 2022, the Texas Department of Public Safety offered a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to Lloyd’s arrest after he allegedly posted a series of comments online threatening to carry a firearm onto the Texas Capitol grounds and challenge any police officer who tried to “take enforcement actions” against him. A statement from the department said Lloyd was a convicted felon.

West Virginia Man Indicted For Fatal Maryland Shootings

A grand jury has indicted the West Virginia man accused of shooting and killing three coworkers at a Maryland machine shop and then shooting and wounding a state trooper who was responding to the incident.

Joe Louis Esquivel, 23, of Hedgesville, West Virginia, was indicted June 29 in two separate criminal cases, including charges of murder, attempted murder, assault and use of a firearm in a crime of violence, said Christine Remsburg, Assistant State’s Attorney for Washington County, Maryland.

Authorities say Esquivel arrived June 9 for his normal shift at Columbia Machine Inc. in the rural community of Smithsburg in western Maryland. He allegedly worked until he left the building to retrieve a weapon, went back inside and fired on employees near a breakroom.

Smithsburg police responding to a 911 call found a wounded person outside the business. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said deputies found three shooting victims inside, all of whom were dead.

Esquivel left the scene in a car and encountered Maryland State Police. A 25-year veteran trooper was shot when police said Esquivel fired at troopers. At least one trooper returned fire, striking the suspect, state police said.

W.Va. Man Is Maryland Mass Shooting Suspect

A West Virginia man accused of fatally shooting three co-workers at a western Maryland machine shop remained under police guard at a hospital Friday, but authorities said a Maryland state trooper injured in a shootout with the suspect was treated and released.

The 25-year veteran of the Maryland State Police was shot when police said the fleeing suspect fired multiple rounds at troopers who tracked him down in western Maryland. At least one trooper returned fire, striking the suspect, state police said. The injured trooper and suspect were both taken to a hospital.

The trooper has been released, but the suspect remained under police guard while undergoing treatment, police said late Thursday. Charges are pending consultation with the Washington County State’s Attorney’s Office, police said. The troopers involved in the shooting will be placed on administrative duty while an investigation is conducted.

Washington County Sheriff Doug Mullendore said three men were found dead at Columbia Machine Inc. in Smithsburg on Thursday afternoon and a fourth was critically injured. The victims and suspect were all employees at the facility, he said. The sheriff identified those killed in the shooting as Mark Alan Frey, 50; Charles Edward Minnick Jr., 31; and Joshua Robert Wallace, 30.

Reached by telephone Friday, Nelson Michael, the father of Brandon Michael, 42, who was wounded in the machine shop shooting, said his son was still in the hospital, but he didn’t know more about his condition.

“He’s surviving,” he said. “I’m glad he’s alive, but it’s going to work on his nerves. I know that.”

Nelson Michael said he didn’t know why the gunman shot the victims.

“I’m not saying any more. I’m just glad my son’s alive, and I feel so bad for the families of the other ones,” he said.

The shooting suspect was identified as a 23-year-old man who lives in West Virginia, but the sheriff’s office said his name wouldn’t be released until charging documents are filed. Authorities declined to release a motive.

Mullendore said the suspect used a semiautomatic handgun, which was recovered after the shootout.

Smithsburg, a community of nearly 3,000 people, is just west of the Camp David presidential retreat and about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Baltimore. The manufacturing facility was in a sparsely populated area northeast of the town’s center with a church, several businesses and farmland nearby.

Columbia Machine manufactures equipment for concrete products, and its Smithsburg location builds molds and works on parts and repairs for other plants. The company’s CEO, Rick Goode, issued a statement calling the deaths of three employees and the wounding of a fourth tragic.

“Our highest priority during this tragic event is the safety and wellbeing of our employees and their families,” he said.

Frey, one of the victims, lived about a half-mile from Dennis Stouffer.

He described Frey as “a solid individual” and “a good guy.”

Stouffer said he would see Frey at the mailbox when he drove by. Stouffer said in a phone interview that Frey once made meat hooks for a deer-meat processing shop he used to run in the small rural community of Smithsburg.

“He didn’t make a bunch of noise or anything. He just went about his work,” Stouffer said.

Speaking late Friday morning, Stouffer said the reason for the shooting remained “a big mystery” to people in the community.

“We’re all in shock and disbelief, and that’s an understatement,” Stouffer said.

As mass shootings continue to fuel debate about gun control around the nation, Stouffer said the Maryland deaths did not change his mind about Second Amendment rights.

“It’s most unfortunate, but you always have to be prepared,” Stouffer said. “Whether it’s church property or your own property or wherever you go, you’re not going to prevent criminals from having guns by passing gun-control laws.”

Man Charged With Killing Police Officer Goes On Trial

The trial for a West Virginia man charged with murder in the fatal shooting a police officer has begun after a judge denied a motion to move proceedings out of Kanawha County.

Testimony began Monday in the trial of Joshua Phillips, who is charged with killing Charleston Police Officer Cassie Johnson, 28, in 2020 when she responded to a parking lot complaint, news outlets reported.

Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey denied a defense motion to move the trial, saying the standard is not whether jurors know the facts of the case but whether they held such fixed opinions that they could not impartially judge the defendant.

“I find that we have a group of potential jurors that have indicated they can be fair and impartial in consideration of this case,” she said.

A jury of nine women and four men heard opening statements in which defense attorney John Sullivan said the question in the case is not whether Phillips shot Johnson, but whether he did so deliberately and maliciously. Sullivan said Phillips was acting in “fear and self-defense.”

Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor Michele Drummond said the state will present evidence that Johnson was worried about her safety leading up to the shooting. Drummond said Phillips pulled a gun, prevented Johnson from getting to her gun and struggled with her before shots were fired.