West Virginia police shot and killed 37-year-old Jason Arnie Owens during his father’s burial.
The Washington Post stated that plainclothes officers walked into the funeral, called out his name, and then shot him.
According to The Post, they opened fire mere seconds after Owens placed his father’s casket in the hearse while embracing him.
Moments after loading his father’s casket into a hearse, police in plainclothes died fire on a West Virginia man as he was embracing his father’s casket.
The Washington Post stated that on August 24, two officers with a fugitive warrant arrived up outside a West Virginia funeral parlor and screamed out Jason Arnie Owens’ name before opening shooting.
The Post said that witnesses and funeral attendants stated Owens, 37, was unarmed despite contradictory allegations from law officials.
Cassandra Whitecotton, a friend of the family, told The Post, “there was absolutely no warning.”
According to The Post, when the two officers fired, Owens’ blood splattered everywhere and covered his 18-year-old son.
“They shouted the name of Jason. They simply muttered “Jason” and then began firing “Whitecotton reported. “There was no indication that they were United States Marshals – nothing. They did not assist this man in any way. Never once did they touch him to provide assistance.”
Owens embraced a family member after placing his father’s casket in the hearse. Then, moments later, he died away.
The US Marshals Service has not yet explained why Owens’ name appeared on a list of wanted fugitives.
The Post said that Owens earned a prison sentence of up to 13 years in 2018 for evading a sheriff’s deputy. According to prosecutors, he attempted to strangle the deputy, and he was granted parole in April of last year.
The two officers arrived to the site in separate vehicles, according to the Post. She stated that one of the vehicles almost hit Whitecotton.
She told The Post, “I almost got struck, so I hopped back up on the curb and asked him, ‘What’s your problem?’”
A man dressed in shorts and a T-shirt hurriedly exited the vehicle. Another witness, Owens’ cousin Mandy Swiger, said she saw a white truck nearly collide with her mother’s car as it pulled into the funeral home parking lot.
Swiger stated that she and other funeral attendants were told by officers not to approach Owens’ body lest they be shot.
Swiger reportedly stated, “We want to know why you would do this in front of his family.” “What gives you the right to do that to a man who is unarmed?”