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发帖数: 901 | 1 Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
Just months before being gunned down, Sheriff Eugene Crum made good on a
campaign promise to do what many in law enforcement have attempted in
southern West Virginia — crack down on drugs, especially the illegal sale
of prescription pills.
In three months and two days on the job, he'd already helped indict dozens
of suspected drug dealers through Mingo County's new Operation Zero
Tolerance.
Authorities haven't said whether that work was related to his shooting death
at midday on a street in the small town of Williamson on Wednesday, but
residents and county officials suspect it.
Crum's team has targeted people "who spread the disease of addiction among
our residents," said County Commission President John Mark Hubbard.
Resident Jerry Cline stood near the site of the slaying hours later, the
drug crackdown clearly at the forefront of his thoughts.
"He told them right before he got in as sheriff, 'If you're dealing drugs, I
'm coming after you. I'm cleaning this town up,'" Cline said. "He got out
just to do one thing, and that's to clean this town up. That's all that man
tried to do."
Authorities were mum about a possible connection between Crum and the
suspect, 37-year-old Tennis Melvin Maynard, who was shot and wounded by a
Mingo deputy following a chase and after state police said he pulled a
weapon.
State Police Capt. David Nelson said Maynard was being treated late
Wednesday night at Cabell Huntington Hospital in Huntington but did not
comment on his condition. Hospital spokesman Charles Shumaker refused to
comment or confirm whether Maynard was a patient Thursday, citing federal
privacy laws.
At a news conference hours after the killing, officials mourned the fallen
sheriff, but released few details of the shooting, which happened just
blocks away from the county courthouse.
"We were and we are proud of him and his service," Commissioner Hubbard said
. "To say Eugene will be missed is a vast understatement."
A bouquet of red roses with a red ribbon was fastened to a guardrail above
the parking lot where the shooting happened.
Though there is no indication of any connection, Crum's killing comes on the
heels of a Texas district attorney and his wife being shot to death in
their home over the weekend, and just weeks after Colorado's corrections
director also was gunned down at his home.
Those bold killings and others have led authorities to propose more
protection for law enforcers.
Crum was killed in the same place where he parked his car most days to eat
lunch, near the site of a former pharmacy known for illegally distributing
pills, a "pill mill" the sheriff wanted to be sure remained shut, said
Delegate Harry Keith White, who campaigned with Crum last year.
"I think anybody you ask would tell you he was a great guy, always with a
positive attitude, always trying to help people," White said. "It's just a
sad, sad day for Mingo County and the state of West Virginia."
Operation Zero Tolerance was Crum's way to make good on a campaign pledge,
White said.
State, federal and local authorities have all tried to clamp down on West
Virginia's drug problem, which centers on the illegal sale of prescription
drugs in the southern counties. Mingo County is in the southwest corner of
West Virginia, on the Kentucky border.
In February, federal officials said they had prosecuted more than 200 pill
dealers in the past two years in West Virginia.
U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, the Democrat whose district includes Mingo County,
said the sheriff, who was married with two children, was new to his job but
not to the cause of justice.
"Every law-abiding citizen demands justice for this tragedy that has shaken
our sense of decency, but not our resolve, to maintain law and order," he
said.
Crum had been a magistrate for 12 years and had previously served as police
chief in Delbarton. He won the primary handily and ran unopposed in the
general election in the fall.
Williamson, a town of 3,200, sits along the Tug Fork River in a part of the
state long associated with violence. Mingo and neighboring McDowell County
are home to the legendary blood feud between the Hatfield family of West
Virginia and the McCoy family of Kentucky, a conflict dating to the Civil
War.
Crum's county was dubbed "Bloody Mingo" during the early 20th century mine
wars, when unionizing miners battled Baldwin-Felts security agents hired by
the coal operators.
Crum's killing saddened and disturbed Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe
Arpaio, who has described himself as "America's toughest sheriff" and is a
national hero to conservatives on immigration issues.
Arpaio himself has been the target of numerous threats, prompting the need
for a security detail. Some have said the same protection should be afforded
to others who battle criminals.
"Inside one year, two of my deputies were shot, one killed and one nearly
killed and now elected law enforcement officials across the nation seem to
be being targeted," he said. "The brazenness of these acts is confounding." |
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