SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A South Charleston man was recovering after being shot in the lower back early Friday.

Detective J.D. Gray of the South Charleston Police Department said Michael Ealm, 31, was walking through an alley between 10th and 11th avenues at about 2:30 a.m. when he was shot. Gray said Ealm ran to Seventh Avenue, where police found him a short time later.

Ealm was taken to CAMC General Hospital, where Gray said he was in stable condition on Friday. Police are investigating.

According to a Kanawha County Metro 911 electronic notification posted at 11:49 p.m., the leak occurred at 11:12 p.m. Firefighters from the Belle Volunteer Fire Department responded to the leak.

Kanawha County Emergency Services Director Dale Petry said the leak occurred in an ammonia unit at the plant as crews were getting ready to pump dimethylamine. Petry said crews had pressurized the system to check for leaks and found none prior to pumping the chemical.

Nevertheless, a leak occurred when the pressure in the system reached 220 pounds per square inch, Petry said. Plant officials estimated about 25 pounds of chemical was released, he said.

Andrew Kniceley

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The chairman of the Fairmont State University Board of Governors issued an apology Thursday for verbally attacking an assistant football coach because his son played only three plays in a football game.

Andrew Kniceley, who also is publisher of the Times West-Virginian, said his conduct was irresponsible and that he approached FSU assistant football coach Gary Lanham as an "inquisitive parent" and not as chairman of the FSU board. Kniceley issued his apology on the Times-West Virginian Web site.

"I wasn't prepared for this incident to be seen as me acting as the chairman of the Board of Governors," he wrote. "But I should have known that I cannot separate my position at FSU or my role in the community as publisher of this newspaper from parental concern in a situation such as this, especially when my emotions got the best of my behavior."

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- Black leaders in Huntington say they've received complaints about racial profiling, and they're concerned about tensions between the black community and police.

Representatives of the Huntington-Cabell Branch of the NAACP and the Huntington Black Pastors' Ministerial Association discussed the complaints Wednesday at a news conference. They also are concerned about the effect on the community of the recent fatal shooting of a black man by a police officer.

The groups say they want police to do their job, but to do it fairly.

Wheeling Police Chief Robert Matheny said the full-auto M16 rifle was stolen from the pickup truck of a Wheeling Police SWAT member on Oct. 21 at the officer's home. SWAT team members had been permitted to take their weapons and equipment home with them under police department regulations. An unknown amount of ammunition was also stolen, Matheny said.

Matheny said it is common practice for law enforcement SWAT team officers to take automatic weapons home or keep them in their vehicles so the weapons are accessible in the event of an emergency.

But Matheny, who has been police chief only since Oct. 26, said he has changed the department's policy on storing automatic weapons since the theft. He said the department's M16s will now be stored at the police station under lock and key.

According to a written report filed by Fairmont police, Andrew Kniceley, who is also publisher of The Times-West Virginian in Fairmont and president of the West Virginia Press Association, approached the coach after FSU's 15-9 loss to Concord in Fairmont on Oct. 31.

"Three plays, you have got to be kidding me three f---ing plays," Kniceley yelled at the coach, according to a report by Fairmont officer M.A. Swain.

Separate reports by two Fairmont police officers were anonymously sent to the Gazette on Tuesday.

NITRO, W.Va. -- A woman was hit and killed by a tractor-trailer while trying to cross W.Va. 25 in Nitro shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Linda Sloan, 50, of Nitro, ran out into stopped traffic after her dog had gotten into the road and had been hit by a car, according to Nitro Police.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Three Charleston men were in jail Tuesday after allegedly trying to rob a Kroger store on the city's West Side.

Sgt. Autumn Davis of the Charleston Police Department said Emmanuel Covington, 18, walked into the Kroger store on Delaware Avenue at about 6:30 a.m. and looked around before going back outside. A short time later, 18-year-old Terrance Bright, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, walked into the store and put his finger in the clerk's back as if he had a gun.

Raimonde Singleton, 19, was apparently waiting outside in a car.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A worker at a local video parlor was pepper-sprayed before an assailant made off with a bag of cash early Monday.

Sgt. Eric Hodges of the Charleston Police Department said 45-year-old Virgil Scragg of Charleston was sitting at a video lottery machine at a gaming parlor at 3501 MacCorkle Ave., at about 2:30 a.m. when he heard the door open behind him. Hodges said Scragg was grabbed from behind by a man wearing a ski mask who demanded money.

Scragg told the man he had no money, but the assailant threw Scragg to the floor and sprayed him with pepper spray. He then made off with a red bank bag that Scragg had partly hidden in the back of his pants.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Firefighters battled a house fire at a resident on Charleston's West Side for more than two hours Monday Night.

The home on Avon Street went up in flames shortly before 6:30 p.m. Firefighters were unclear how the fire started.

Metro 911 dispatchers said this is the second time this home caught fire in the past month.

"We believe that there were proper procedures in place that would have prevented these deaths and we believe the procedures were not followed," said Harold Albertson, the attorney for Good's mother Patricia Harrison. "We think that the senior officer should have terminated the chase."

On Sept. 13, Good led police on a chase from Charleston's East End to northern Kanawha County. The chase ended when Good ran into a Charleston police cruiser in a gravel parking lot on Quick Road.

Video from police cruisers at the scene show Good continuing to rev his engine and hit the police car as other cars close in. Three police officers then fired, killing Good and in the process also killing their fellow officer.

Kerry Lee Johnson, 53, faces life in prison when he is sentenced in December.

Kerry Lee Johnson, 53, now faces life in prison when he is sentenced by Judge Duke Bloom on Dec. 18.

The jury deliberated for more than three hours before returning its verdict, which included finding Johnson guilty of breaking and entering and three counts of second-degree sexual assault.

The victim hugged Kanawha County assistant prosecutors Dan Holstein and Stewart Altmeyer after the verdict was announced.

Chris Dorst

James Michael Williams lived at the corner of Grant Street and Park Avenue, in a building adjacent to the grounds of Glenwood Elementary School and on the corner opposite the Charleston First Church of the Nazarene.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The 19-year-old man shot and killed on Charleston's West Side Tuesday night was the subject of a heated preliminary hearing in magistrate court just hours before.

James Michael Williams was before Magistrate Julie Yeager on a felony child neglect charge Tuesday for allegedly letting his cousin's 11-month-old child have a baby bottle containing beer. Hours later, he was shot through a window in his home at the corner of Grant Street and Park Avenue.

Ebony Williams, the mother of the 11-month-old, was angry when Williams' girlfriend Rosemary Lacy took the stand, Yeager said.

James Blackford III, of Martinsburg, is scheduled to go on trial starting March 9. He remains free on a $200,000 bond.

The 30-year-old was a three-year member of the Bedington Volunteer Fire Department when he was arrested in April and charged with setting fire to a barn.

Kenneth Ayers of the Baker Heights Volunteer Fire Department was critically injured in that blaze, but was later released after hospital treatment.

A tractor-trailer slammed into a pickup truck near Buzz Food Service about 8:30 a.m., the dispatcher said. Two additional vehicles were also involved in the accident, he said. The tractor-trailer was carrying empty metal drums, the dispatcher said.

One person was transported to CAMC General, he said.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A fire set as a prank Thursday got out of hand and destroyed three vacant buildings.

Lt. Sean Crosier of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department said a fire was reported on Dry Branch Road in Cabin Creek about 11:30 p.m. The fire was apparently set by pranksters in the middle of the road, but spread to nearby buildings. Crosier said two office trailers like those used by contractors and a mobile home were destroyed by the blaze.

All three buildings were vacant, he said.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. --  Authorities have identified a man who died in a motorcycle crash near Clendenin on Wednesday.

Deputies believe Raymond E. Pauley, 40, of Amma lost control of his 2001 Kawasaki Vulcan motorcycle while trying to pass two cars in a no passing zone near Herbert Hoover High School at about 7 p.m. Wednesday, said Lt. Sean Crosier of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Authorities have identified a man who died in a motorcycle crash near Clendenin on Wednesday.

Deputies believe Raymond E. Pauley, 40, of Amma lost control of his 2001 Kawasaki Vulcan motorcycle while trying to pass two cars in a no passing zone near Herbert Hoover High School at about 7 p.m. Wednesday, said Lt. Sean Crosier of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department.

Crosier said Pauley apparently lost control and hit a concrete culvert while riding at high rate of speed, throwing him off of the motorcycle. Pauley was pronounced dead on the scene. The investigation continues.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. --  Mason County authorities are investigating the death of a woman found along a local road on Tuesday.

Mason County Sheriff David Anthony said the body of 35-year-old Tonya Lynn Slaughter, 35, of Huntington, was found lying alongside Barton Chapel Road in Mason County early Tuesday. Slaughter had no family or known connections with Mason County, Anthony said.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A woman who alleges she was gang-raped by Logan County police officers has filed suit in federal court.

The woman and two men who were with her that evening allege that three of the four officers raped her and that all threatened to kill the two men.

On Tuesday, Jay Bartholomew, supervisory special agent with the FBI in Charleston, said the FBI's investigation into the incident is ongoing.

A neighbor discovered the body on Barton Chapel Road off Jerry's Run Road.

The Mason County Sheriff's Department believes the death is an isolated incident, but they are investigating it as a homicide. They would not release the victim's identity or how the victim died.

WINFIELD -- The former sheriff of Putnam County has been fined $100 for a November 2008 DUI arrest.

Stan Farley, 66, entered a plea agreement of no contest on Sept. 25, and was fined $100 in addition to $234 for court costs by Putnam County Magistrate Linda Hunt.

Farley served as Putnam County's sheriff from 1997 to 2004.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Charleston man was robbed early today on the city's West Side.

Gregory Jones, 40, of Kanawha City, was in the 1300 block of Grant Street at about 2:30 a.m. when he was beaten by a white man and a black man, said Sgt. Eric Hodges of the Charleston Police Department. Jones was robbed of his jacket and cell phone.

Jones flagged down a police officer, who caught up with one of the alleged robbers about a block away. Police arrested 24-year-old Matthew Suttle, who was identified by Jones as one of the robbers, Hodges said.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. --  St. Albans police are looking for a man who ran off with cash from a local convenience store late Monday.

St. Albans Police Chief Joe Crawford said a man wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and cap walked into the Go-Mart on Third Street just before 11 p.m. and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash register, Crawford said the man grabbed a handful of money and ran off.

KENOVA, W.Va. -- A truck driver has been charged over an accident that left a Kenova man dead after his wheelchair was struck by a tractor trailer.

Deris Scott died Monday morning after his motorized chair collided with the rear of a wide-turning tractor trailer in Kenova. The 68-year-old was knocked to the ground, but the truck dragged his chair for up to a quarter mile.

Driver Michael J. Joyce, of South Carolina, has been charged with felony negligent homicide.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Kanawha County sheriff's deputies are asking for help identifying a woman who may have used a credit card stolen from Fayette County.

Deputies are looking for a heavyset blonde woman who may have used a credit card stolen in August from Mountain Vending Inc. in Oak Hill, according to Lt. Bryan Stover of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department.

According to Stover, the card was used about 50 times at a Cross Lanes Exxon station. Suspects charged more than $7,000 to the card before it was cancelled.

Kenneth Ray Hager

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Two prisoners escaped from a work camp near the Mount Olive Correctional Complex early Monday.

A Fayette County emergency dispatcher identified the fugitives as William Okey Cline, 25, and Kenneth Ray Hager, 30. The men apparently escaped from the work camp near the prison about 1 a.m. Monday. The work camp is on prison grounds, but outside the security fence.

There are 48 prisoners assigned to the camp, said Joe Thornton, spokesman for the state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety.

James Pruett, 33, of Bradley, was arrested by Raleigh County sheriff's deputies after a fatal stabbing at the Bay Manor Apartments in Beckley, according to a press release issued by the Raleigh County Sheriff's Department.

Authorities believe Pruett got into a domestic dispute at the apartment complex about 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Deputies are not releasing the name of the victim pending notification of relatives.

Pruett was charged with voluntary manslaughter in connection with the stabbing. He was being held in the Southern Regional Jail on Friday in lieu of $1 million bond.

"I don't think much of what Megan Williams is allegedly saying. I think she is being manipulated," said Malik Shabazz, head of the group Black Lawyers for Justice.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The woman Megan Williams now lives with and the man who rallied to her side shortly after she was found are both skeptical of her most recent claim that she wasn't abused in Logan County in 2007.

"I don't think much of what Megan Williams is allegedly saying. I think she is being manipulated," said Malik Shabazz, head of the group Black Lawyers for Justice. "Her not showing up at the news conference is telling.

"And based on my knowledge of what's been happening with her over the last year and a half, this seems like a scheme by her caretaker to garner sensationalism and publicity in an attempt to get some money," Shabazz said.

KINGWOOD, W.Va. -- The family of a man found hanging in the Preston County Jail is suing the suspected killer, fellow inmates and the Preston County Commission.

Timothy Daft died the day after he was found in his cell in August 2005.

On Tuesday, a grand jury indicted Leonard Wotring, now an inmate at Mount Olive Correctional Center, on a first-degree murder charge.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Police are trying to identify a body found in an overgrown field by a man preparing for deer season.

State Police Cpl. J.C. Weaver says handwritten telephone numbers found with the victim may yield clues, but a Georgia ID card did not help identify him.

He says the body was too decomposed to extract fingerprints or spot identifying marks.

Megan Williams, who was supposed to take back her story that seven Logan County residents beat, raped and tortured her, did not speak at a press conference on Wednesday.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Megan Williams, who was supposed to take back her story that seven Logan County residents beat, raped and tortured her, didn't speak at a press conference at her lawyer's office on Wednesday.

Instead, lawyer Byron L. Potts recanted her claims for her. He said Williams told him that the only injuries that weren't self-inflicted were the bruises on her face.

"She is recanting the entire incident. She says it did not happen, and she's scared,'' Potts said. He urged prosecutors to re-examine the cases against the seven people convicted in the attack.

Melvin Craig Mullins, 39, of Tioga, was charged with first-degree sexual assault and incest on Tuesday after three female juveniles told Nicholas County sheriff's deputies they had been repeatedly abused while in Mullins' care, according to a press release issued by the Nicholas County Sheriff's Department.

Additional charges may be filed. Mullins was in the Central Regional Jail on Wednesday in lieu of $900,000 bond.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- A Berkeley County grand jury has indicted a former volunteer firefighter in connection with an April blaze that seriously injured another firefighter.

James Blackford III, of Martinsburg, was indicted on charges of first-degree arson, setting fire to lands and causing serious injury during an arson-related crime.

It was not immediately clear if Blackford has a lawyer.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A new report says West Virginia ranks fifth nationally in substantiated cases of child abuse or neglect, despite relatively high spending to protect children.

The report, released today by the Every Child Matters Education Fund, says there were 7,109 substantiated cases of abuse or neglect in West Virginia in 2007.

That gives the state the fifth-highest rate, behind Massachusetts, Iowa, New York and Kentucky.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Four new officers have been hired to supervise convicted sex offenders in West Virginia.

Justice Thomas McHugh swore in the officers Tuesday at the state Supreme Court chambers in Charleston.

Officers Arthur Houchins, Tonya Lash, Matthew West and Heath Harmon were hired this month to work in a nine-county area from Mercer to Pocahontas counties.

Megan Williams will hold a press conference Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, to recant her claims of abuse, attorney Byron L. Potts, who represents Williams, told The Charleston Gazette on Tuesday night.
"She has decided she has been living this lie for approximately two years and she has decided to tell the truth," Potts said. "She fabricated the story and she did this in retaliation because she was having a relationship with one of them."

Williams saga takes another strange turn

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Seven people pleaded guilty for their part in abusing Megan Williams -- but now Williams says that abuse never happened.

She will hold a press conference Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, to recant her claims of abuse, attorney Byron L. Potts, who represents Williams, told The Charleston Gazette on Tuesday night.

ASHFORD, W.Va. --  Boone County authorities have identified a woman who died in a single-vehicle wreck on Monday.

Boone County sheriff's officials identified the victim Tuesday as Joyce Barker, 46, of Ashford. The accident happened around 3:30 p.m. on County Route 1 in Ashford, according to a county 911 dispatcher.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Mexican authorities have been unable to establish the identity of human remains that are reputedly those of a fugitive from justice in Morgantown.

A lawyer for ABC Bailing Bonding told Monongalia Circuit Judge Russell Clawges on Monday that a bone from the body is now being sent to the U.S. for testing.

Mexican officials drew blood from the body found in a pauper's grave in a bid to see if DNA from the sample matches that of David Coffman. They were unable to extract DNA from the sample, though.

Walter Thomas Wilson was shot by Huntington police officer Richard Kern in the parking lot of a Speedway gasoline station on Hal Greer Boulevard just after midnight, according to media reports.

Huntington police said Kern had gone into the store to get some coffee when another customer told him that Wilson was acting suspiciously. When Kern went to investigate, he and Wilson got into a scuffle that spilled out onto the parking lot.

Police said Kern shot Wilson after Wilson allegedly went for a gun. Wilson reportedly had a past criminal record.

CLIFTON, W.Va. -- A Mason County man is charged with more than 700 counts of sexual abuse after he allegedly sexually abused a young female relative repeatedly over a period of seven years.

Steven Ray Crilow, Sr., 37, of Clifton, was arrested for allegedly touching the girl's genitals on a weekly basis for seven years between 1996 and 2002 at an apartment complex where he resided in Point Pleasant.

The victim was between the ages of 3 and 9 at the time of the alleged abuse, according to the Mason County Sheriff's Department.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Charleston man faces charges of wanton endangerment, possession of a firearm by a felon and battery on correctional officers after early morning incidents Sunday at a St. Albans bar and South Central Regional Jail.

At 2:54 a.m. Sunday, Donell<co > William Edwards, 27, was arguing with a woman outside Mel's Bar in St. Albans when Lt. M.L. Matthews with the St. Albans Police Department approached Edwards and asked if he had a gun. As Matthews walked in Edwards' direction, several people said, "He has a gun." In a criminal complaint, Matthews said that Edwards turned and looked at him as he approached and placed a revolver in his back pocket.

Edwards told Matthews he did not have a gun, and then Matthews patted him down and discovered a cocked silver revolver in his left rear pocket loaded with hollow point bullets. While under arrest at the St. Albans Police Department, Matthews learned that Edwards has two convictions for wanton endangerment with explosives in 2002 and 2003. Also, Edwards allegedly said that he was on federal probation for eight more months, according to Matthews.

During an Oct. 9 news conference, Charleston police released the video from the night Patrolman Jerry Jones and Brian Good were killed.

The video details a dark, tragic scene where two young men die. One of the deaths, police say, was a justified killing, and the other, an accident.

When asked at the news conference if there was any concern about the sheriff's department investigating the Charleston Police, with whom they work very closely, Charleston Mayor Danny Jones said "no."

Read about other cities' use of civilian review boards.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Below is a list of incidents during the past five years where West Virginia police agencies investigated other police, along with the known outcomes of those investigations:

June 15, 2006 -- Charleston Police Sgt. Eric Johnson was shot once in the face and once in the abdomen. He returned fire, killing Brett Lawrence Hanick. The officer accompanying Johnson, Capt. Tim Tucker (who was not his partner), did not have his service weapon with him and hid from the gunshots.

Read about recent incidents where West Virginia police investigated other police.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Meshea Poore has seen clients walk through her door, bruised and battered, with claims of police brutality.

Sometimes the stories are accurate, sometimes not, the Kanawha County public defender said.

GREENVIEW, W.Va. -- A Boone County man has been taken to the hospital after being stabbed in the right shoulder, according to a Boone County emergency dispatcher.

The victim apparently got into an altercation with another man around 5:30 p.m. and was stabbed in the shoulder on Big Branch Road in Greenview, the dispatcher said.

The victim was transported to Boone Memorial Hospital, but the dispatcher said his injuries do not seem to be serious.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Facebook users beware: Cyber thieves have started impersonating friends in need on the popular social networking site and have made hundreds or thousands of dollars off unsuspecting users.

Thieves are hijacking accounts and using them to send emotional pleas for help, such as "I lost my wallet in London and desperately need money to get home!" said Craig Butterworth with the National White Collar Crime Center, which has a branch in Fairmont.

Many times, unsuspecting users will wire hundreds, even thousands of dollars to the thieves, Butterworth said.

DUNBAR, W.Va. -- A man suspected in a West Dunbar shooting that left one man injured earlier this week has turned himself in.

T. Majete Edmonds, also known as Tyrone Edmonds, Tyrone Davis and DJ T-Nutz, 35, of Charleston, turned himself in to the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department Wednesday evening.

Deputies say Edmonds admits to shooting Troy Moss of Dunbar in the stomach on Tuesday before fleeing the scene.

RONCEVERTE, W.Va. -- Three more volunteer firefighters and a woman have been accused in an embezzlement scandal involving the Ronceverte Volunteer Fire Department.

State Police Trooper W.A. Pendleton said Matthew Scott Campbell, 27, and Gary Lee Carter, 59, are charged with receiving stolen property.

Ricky Gean Reed, 40, and Angela Brammer, 25, are charged with conspiracy to commit embezzlement. Brammer's husband was among three former department officials indicted last week.

SPENCER, W.Va. -- A Roane County man was recovering Wednesday after being shot in the head by his brother.

Rex Fields, 46, of Gandeeville got into an argument with his brother, Leslie, at Rex Fields' home on Oct. 9, according to State Police Sgt. Michael Baylous. Leslie Fields then left the house and came back with a .22 caliber pistol, Baylous said.

Leslie Fields, 47, of Spencer, then shot his brother twice in the head before fleeing on an all-terrain vehicle, Baylous said.