CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Violent crimes and tragedies have been on the increase in West Virginia in recent months causing some to wonder how much the ongoing pandemic is contributing to the behavior.
Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford said 10 deaths in connection with six separate murder cases in his county from Dec. 1 to Jan. 1 have left him at a loss to explain it.
“I don’t know,” Rutherford said. “I’m been doing this in Kanawha County for 48 years and I’ve never seen the likes of this.”
The Kanawha County deaths include the shooting of Charleston Patrol Officer Cassie Johnson, a four-member Elkview family shot and killed in their home, a man shot and killed in Charleston, a woman shot and killed with a crossbow in St. Albans, a double murder in Loudendale where a son allegedly killed his parents with an ax and a convenience store parking lot shooting death in Cross Lanes.
“It’s been a tremendous sadness for the county and a tremendous burden for law enforcement,” Rutherford said.
Kanawha County isn’t the only place where violence has occurred as the pandemic and its impact continues.
According to Bridgeport police, Supervisory U.S. Probation Officer Vinnie Zummo shot and killed his wife Kelly and then took his own life following a New Year’s Day argument.
Five young children died in a house fire in Greenbrier County in early December. The mother of some of the children was found dead outside the house. A criminal investigation continues. A murder-suicide claimed the life of a Bridgeport couple on New Year’s Day.
In the month of December alone, first responders in the Eastern Panhandle have gone out on calls to find bodies burned beyond recognition in separate car crashes and an elderly woman killed in her living room when a truck crashed through her home. They were also on the scene when West Virginia Air National Guard Senior Airman Logan Young died while fighting a barn fire on Dec. 27 in Berkeley County. The fire was intentionally set.
Morgan County Sheriff K.C. Bohrer said departments are better aware of addressing the impact of trauma but sometimes those conversations have to be put off until there’s time.
“Doctors have to do it. We have to do it. EMS people have to do it. There’s not somebody available at 2 o’clock in the morning to share your feelings with,” Bohrer said. “Sometimes we just swallow it and move on. Sometimes in comes up with our people in forums later on in the form of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome).”
Crime decreased at the beginning of the pandemic and corresponding shutdowns but as the impact both socially and economically are heading toward the 10-month mark no one quite knows what to expect next.
“I just don’t know,” Rutherford repeated. “It’s just a terrible thing. People are getting, getting much more, I guess, vicious for lack of a better word, in some cases.”
"crime" - Google News
January 03, 2021 at 06:00PM
https://ift.tt/2LdyvEs
Violent crime increases in West Virginia as pandemic stretches on - West Virginia MetroNews
"crime" - Google News
https://ift.tt/37MG37k
https://ift.tt/2VTi5Ee
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Violent crime increases in West Virginia as pandemic stretches on - West Virginia MetroNews"
Post a Comment