WILLIAMSON, W.Va. (AP) - A new sheriff who was cracking down on the drug trade in southern West Virginia's coalfields was fatally shot Wednesday in the spot where he usually parked his car for lunch, and State Police said the suspect was in a hospital with gunshot wounds inflicted by a deputy who chased him.
Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum died of his wounds, but State Police Capt. David Nelson didn't say how many times he was shot or offer many other details as two dozen law enforcement officers gathered around him on the courthouse steps.
The suspect, 37-year-old Tennis Melvin Maynard, was being treated at a hospital in Huntington late Wednesday.
Nelson said Maynard was fleeing from a deputy and crashed his car into a bridge in nearby Delbarton. Maynard got out of the vehicle and pulled a gun on the deputy, who fired in self-defense, he said.
Crum was elected last year and had just taken office in January, but he'd already helped indict dozens of suspected drug dealers through the county's new Operation Zero Tolerance.
It's unclear whether that crusade was related to his death, but residents and county officials suspect as much.
County Commission President John Mark Hubbard said Crum's team has targeted people "who spread the disease of addiction among our residents."
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