Plainclothes officers shot and killed a pallbearer at a funeral in West Virginia after he placed his father’s casket in the hearse.
According to the Washington Post, Jason Arnie Owens, 37, was at his father’s funeral on August 24 when the plainclothes officers arrived to enforce a fugitive warrant. They called out his name, but witnesses say the officers never gave him a chance to surrender before shooting him.
“They yelled Jason’s name. They just said ‘Jason’ and then started firing,” Cassandra Whitecotton, a family friend, said. “There was no identifications they were US Marshals — anything. They did not render this man any aid at all. Never once they touched him to render any aid whatsoever.”
Mourners instinctively ran to help Owens but they were told by one of the officers to “step back or I’ll shoot you.”
The US Marshals Service told the Washington Post that Owens had a gun at the time of the arrest, a claim disputed by witnesses and family members who are now demanding answers.
“We want to know why you would do this in front of his family,” Mandy Swiger, Owens’ cousin said, per The Post. “And what gives you the right to do that to an unarmed man?”
It’s unclear whether bodycam footage from the marshals exist. But, even if it does, it is unlikely to be released as West Virginia law does not require authorities to do so during an investigation.
Marshals did not reveal why a warrant had been issued against Owens. But, he received a prison sentence of up to 13 years in 2018 after fleeing from a sheriff’s deputy. Prosecutors said he had tried to strangle the Harrison County sheriff’s deputy. He was released on parole in April last year.
But Swiger said he committed a parole violation “for not checking in just once. And that’s why he promised his mom after the funeral he would turn himself in,” the Associated Press reports.
