A man wanted by the U.S. Marshals and other law enforcement agencies was fatally shot at his father’s funeral on Wednesday, CBS News reports. According to authorities, the shooting occurred after Jason Owens pulled a gun on officers attempting to take him into custody.
Owens was a pallbearer at his father’s funeral. According to WV News, law enforcement was outside the Amos Carvelli Funeral Home in Nutter Fort, West Virginia, when they spotted him. Harrison County Sheriff Robert Matheny said they believed Owens was armed, though he could not confirm if a weapon was found at the scene, WBOY reports.
After Owens helped take his father’s casket to a hearse, officers approached the grieving son and tried to arrest him. Officers said he then pulled out a gun before being shot, CBS News reports.
“He just took his dad out and put him in the car, carried the casket out, and he came over and I was hugging him, and next thing I know, somebody yelled ‘Jason!’ and then, you know, ‘boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,'” Evelyn O’Dell, Owens’ aunt, said, according to WBOY. “He didn’t have a chance to do nothing.”
“I went to hug him because he was upset, and next thing I know they just yelled ‘Jason!’ and they ‘pow, pow, pow, pow, pow,’” she said. “I about got shot. I felt the compressions of the bullets. It was horrible.”
WBOY reports O’Dell was not injured during the shooting.
O’Dell said she is traumatized after the incident.
“I’m distraught. I’m just totally upset,” O’Dell said, SF Gate reports. “I was getting ready to go lay my brother down in the ground and they shot his son. It’s a mess.”
An investigation into the shooting is currently underway.
“Well [the family is] they’re upset and we don’t know right now and I’ve talked to most of the family, people around the scene here, and promised them an independent and transparent investigation,” Matheny said, according to WBOY. “The State Police will do the shooting investigation, the agencies that their officers were involved in the actual shooting will do independent, internal reviews, the officers that were involved in the shooting will of course be off on critical incident leave, pending the outcome of the review, and I say at this point, it’s early and I have very little to no facts, but I can promise a full, independent and transparent investigation.”
