Sniper Attacks Put Town on Its Guard

Gene Stone sat on the front porch Tuesday afternoon of his modest home along Campbells Creek Road, just down the street from the convenience store where a 31-year-old woman had been felled by a sniper five days earlier.

Stone, 85, has Alzheimer’s disease. Shortly after the unsolved fatal shooting -- the third in this normally placid region in the last 10 days -- his wife warned him to move inside from his favored spot when she left for the grocery store.

“I said to him, ‘Would you please get on that couch. Somebody may come out and shoot you, and I’d hate for you to get shot while I was gone,’ ” said Georgia Stone, 84.

The Stones, like many other Charleston-area residents, are still shaken by the three slayings that have rocked the area since Aug. 10, when Gary Carrier Jr., 44, of South Charleston, was shot while using a pay phone outside a Charleston GoMart. Jeanie Patton, 31, and Okey Meadows Jr., 26, both of Campbells Creek, were shot Thursday within 90 minutes of one another, about 10 miles apart.

The Patton slaying “just floored me,” said Stone, who described Campbells Creek, about 10 miles southeast of Charleston, the state capital, as a place full of good neighbors who help the couple.

The similarities among the shootings -- all were single shots fired into the head or neck from at least 30 yards away, felling the victims in front of convenience stores -- have investigators examining whether a lone sniper is responsible.

Federal, state, county and city law enforcement agents are canvassing Kanawha County and surrounding areas, following up on more than 100 leads and going door-to-door interviewing residents, Kanawha County Sheriff Dave Tucker said at a news conference Tuesday. Investigators who solved last fall’s sniper shootings in the Washington, D.C., area are assisting.

Law enforcement officials said Tuesday that the shootings could be drug-related. “Most of the people in the neighborhood [of Campbells Creek], young people, middle-aged people, feel it is drug-related,” said Chief Deputy Phil Morris of the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department.

Morris declined to give specifics. But officials have not ruled out that the shootings were random, he added.

“We’re not saying stop looking over your shoulders,” Morris said. “We’re saying there is a drug problem in Campbells Creek; we are looking at it very, very seriously.”

Campbells Creek native Eddie King, 47, a private investigator, said the unincorporated community “used to be pretty decent, but has been getting a little rough.”

All three victims were shot by a small-caliber rifle, but investigators are still awaiting ballistics test results, Tucker said.

Six police officers on bicycles are patrolling the area around Campbells Creek, Morris said. He estimated that investigators talked with about 150 people Monday, continuing door-to-door Tuesday, and gathered “what we feel is 10 good leads that need to be followed up on.”

Charleston Police Chief Jerry Pauley said investigators are still searching for a dark-colored extended-cab pickup truck, perhaps a Ford F-150, that witnesses reported at one of the crime scenes.

The “only thing we really know at this point is the vehicle we’re looking for,” Pauley said. Pickups are common in this West Virginia community.

Jones described Charleston as “a friendly community,” but he acknowledged the toll the shootings have taken on residents. “People in this community are guarded, but they’re not paranoid. The question is when and if the other shoe will drop. If there’s another shooting, people will be apprehensive.”

The mayor said he is confident in the abilities of those investigating the cases. “This will be solved like any investigation is solved -- by routine, nuts and bolts police work,” Jones said. “All the press from the national news media is not going to speed up the investigation.”

In Campbells Creek, patrons stopped at local restaurants Tuesday for barbecue and ice cream, most of them greeting one another by name.

Daniel Knight, 20, who works at the Bowincal hot dog stand on Campbells Creek Road, was shocked when he heard about Meadows’ death in nearby Cedar Grove. Knight used to play pickup football with Meadows; many Campbells Creek residents know one or more of the victims or their families.

Kelli Scholcraft, 35, a waitress at Peggy’s Dairy Treat restaurant, made her husband gas up her car last week because she was afraid. The newly beefed-up police presence in the area, however, has helped ease her mind. “I feel safer,” Scholcraft said.

The investigation and attendant media attention have boosted business, she said.

Billy Shinn, 80, sipped a vanilla shake on his way home from his job as a grocery bagger. “I just think people would be more civilized than to just shoot somebody in cold blood,” he said. “... What can you really do to protect yourself?”

Several people along the road Tuesday were out trimming their bushes, walking to their mailboxes or gassing up their cars in the afternoon sun.

Roy Webb, 39, a mechanic from Campbells Creek, was filling up his maroon Chevy pickup truck at the Speedway where Patton was shot just six days ago. “It’s a tragedy,” Webb said of the deaths. “A lot of people are afraid to go to the store.”

But he remains unconcerned about the potential danger of a sniper nearby. “I mean, if it’s my time to go, I’m going to go whether I’m here or somewhere else,” Webb said.