CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Jason Arnie Owens helped carry his father’s coffin to the hearse, then turned to hug a relative. He never reached the graveyard.
As mourners gathered in front of a funeral home in northern West Virginia on Aug. 24, two plainclothes officers with a fugitive warrant dove in from several vehicles, shouted Owens’ name and shot him to death, removing the shirt from his 18-year-old man. year-old son splattered with blood as shocked loved ones watched.
“There was not a single warning,” said family friend Cassandra Whitecotton.
In an instant, bewildered friends and family who were already mourning one member lost another. Now they want answers – not just why Owens was shot, but why the encounter happened the way it happened.
Law enforcement officers aren’t explaining much at the moment, citing an ongoing investigation. Owens, 37, was wanted on a fugitive warrant, but the US Marshals Service didn’t say what it was for. The agency also said in a statement that he was carrying a gun as members of a fugitive task force approached. Several witnesses claim that is not true.
Whitecotton and others standing steps away said Owens was unarmed, hugged his Aunt Evelyn O’Dell, and was shot at immediately after his name was called. Witnesses also dispute the US Marshals’ claim that first aid was delivered immediately before emergency medical services arrived.
“They called Jason’s name. They just said ‘Jason’ and then started shooting,” Whitecotton said. “There were no identifications that they were US Marshals – anything. They did not provide any assistance to this man at all. Never did they ever touch him to provide any assistance.”
As family members prepared for services for Owens on Friday, a state police investigation into the shooting was underway. But patience in the community is running out.
Family members and supporters protested outside the Harrison County courthouse last week, accusing law enforcement authorities of overreaching the death of Owens, who was white. A Facebook page called Justice for Jason Owens has grown to about 800 members – more than half the population of Nutter Fort, where Owens was murdered.
The unanswered questions underlie the question of whether a line of decency was crossed in the arrest of a man who was in the process of burying his father.
“If they’ve been looking for someone and they finally know where they are, they’re going to get them,” said Tracy L. Hahn, a Columbus, Ohio-based security consultant who retired after 32 years in law enforcement. including as deputy chief of police at Ohio State University.
Hahn said she knows of agencies who have gone to funerals but waited until after to approach the person.
“There must have been a mitigating circumstance that they felt the urgency to arrest him then rather than wait, if there was a risk factor, an escape risk or something like that,” Hahn said.
Family members are not so sure. They say it only adds to their sense of disrespect that the authorities involved don’t feel obligated to answer their questions.
“We want to know why you would do this in front of his family,” said Owens’ cousin, Mandy Swiger. “And what gives you the right to do that to an unarmed man?”
Acting US Marshal Terry Moore said he was unable to answer questions during the investigation and messages left with state police were not returned.
It is not clear whether there is video footage from police bodycams, the dashboard of a police vehicle or the funeral home itself. Unlike major cities where detailed incident reports and video footage are released following deadly police shootings — sometimes within hours — that rarely happens in West Virginia.
West Virginia law exempts police from releasing video footage during an investigation. And the US Marshals Service office said it had not written a detailed incident report on the shooting, citing the press release withholding Owens’ name and other details.
Owens had had trouble with the law before. He was sentenced to three to 13 years in prison in 2018 for fleeing a Harrison County deputy sheriff and attempting to strangle him during a scuffle. He was released on parole in April 2021.
But Swiger said he violated a parole “because he didn’t check in once. And that’s why he promised his mother after the funeral that he would turn himself in.”
Whitecotton said she was smoking a cigarette after the shift when an SUV sped down the side street where the hearse was due to depart.
“It kind of hit me, so I jumped back on the curb and looked at him like, ‘What’s your problem?'” she said. A man in shorts and a T-shirt jumped out and left his door open.
Swiger said a white truck with another plainclothes officer in it nearly hit her mother’s vehicle as the truck pulled into the parking lot. Swiger said Owens was shot from several directions and there were an estimated 40 people in the area. She, too, said she didn’t see a gun in Owens’ hands.
Some mourners instinctively ran to Owens after he fell to the ground, Swiger said, but were told by one of the officers, “Step back or I’ll shoot you.”
Whitecotton said she has lived in much larger cities like Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth.
“Never in my life have I dealt with anything like this,” she said. “I’d expect it there, to be honest. But not here.”
