Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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  • Orange paint marks the scene where the standoff at Woodlawn Cemetery occurred Sunday evening. Staff photo by Eric DiNovo

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January 31, 2012

Man fatally shot in cemetery

By CHARLES OWENS and SAMANTHA PERRY Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BLUEWELL — A man armed with a rifle was shot and killed Sunday at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bluewell following a standoff with police.

The man refused to comply with law enforcement orders to raise his hands, and instead reached for his weapon in a threatening manner, said Sgt. M.T. Baylous of the West Virginia State Police. The standoff occurred Sunday at 6:15 p.m. along a service road leading to the cemetery’s new mausoleum.

Baylous said state troopers and deputies with the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene where they located Jackie Spaulding Jr., 34, holding a rifle to his chest.

“The responding officers were able to locate the suspect’s vehicle on the service road behind the mausoleum,” Baylous said. “As one of the troopers approached the vehicle with a deputy, they instructed the suspect to show his hands. He failed to comply with their repeated commands, and instead reached down to grab the weapon. And, at that time, the trooper fatally wounded him.”

Baylous said the initial 911 complaint was of an “emotionally disturbed man holding a weapon to his chest.”

Mercer County Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ash identified the officer who shot Spaulding as trooper J.R. Coburn, with the West Virginia State Police Welch detachment. Coburn “was coming home from his shift in McDowell County to his residence here in Mercer and responded along with the deputies.”

Coburn is a former deputy with the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department.

First Sgt. J.R. Pauley, with the West Virginia State Police Princeton detachment, said Coburn has been placed on administrative leave pending the completion of the investigation. “That’s State Police policy for any shooting of this nature.”

Pauley said Spaulding had recently moved to Montcalm from Colorado.

Ash confirmed that Spaulding and his father, Jackie Spaulding Sr., were recently arrested.

Deputy J.D. Gills, with the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department, said the two Spaulding men were arrested last week on felony charges of malicious wounding. “They made bond and were back out again,” Gills said.

An investigation into the incident continues.







 

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