Plainclothes Officers In West Virginia Interrupted A Funeral By Killing A Pallbearer As He Was Mid-embrace — And Seconds After Placing His Father’s Casket In The Hearse:

• Plainsclothes offi­cers walked into the funer­al, called out his name, and then shot him, The Washington Post reported.
• They fired just sec­onds after Owens put his father’s cas­ket in the hearse, mid embrace, per The Post.

A West Virginia man died mid-embrace when police in plain­clothes fired shots toward him just sec­onds after plac­ing his father’s cas­ket into a hearse.

Two offi­cers with a fugi­tive war­rant showed up out­side a West Virginia funer­al home on August 24, The Washington Post report­ed, and called out Jason Arnie Owens’ name before shooting.

Witnesses and funer­al atten­dees said Owens, 37, was not armed, despite con­trary claims from law enforce­ment, The Post reported.

“There was no warn­ing what­so­ev­er,” Cassandra Whitecotton, a fam­i­ly friend, told The Post.

When the two offi­cers fired, Owens’ blood sprayed every­where and caked his 18-year-old son, accord­ing to The Post.

“They yelled Jason’s name. They just said ‘Jason’ and then start­ed fir­ing,” Whitecotton said. “There was no iden­ti­fi­ca­tions they were U.S. Marshals — any­thing. They did not ren­der this man any aid at all. Never once they touched him to ren­der any aid whatsoever.

After Owens placed his father’s cas­ket into the hearse, he embraced a rel­a­tive. Then, sec­onds lat­er, he died.

The US Marshals Service has not yet spec­i­fied why Owens’ name was on a list of fugi­tives to be apprehended.

Owens received a prison sen­tence of up to 13 years in 2018 after flee­ing from a sher­if­f’s deputy, The Post report­ed. Prosecutors said he had tried to stran­gle the deputy, and he was released on parole in April last year.

The two offi­cers pulled up to the scene in sep­a­rate cars, the Post report­ed. One of the cars almost hit Whitecotton, she said.

“It about hit me, so I jumped back up on the curb and kind of looked at him like, ‘What’s your prob­lem?’ ” she told The Post.

A man wear­ing shorts and a T‑shirt rushed out of the car. Another wit­ness — Mandy Swiger, Owens’ cousin — said she saw a white truck near­ly hit her mom’s car as the dri­ver pulled into the funer­al home park­ing lot.

Swiger said she and the oth­er funer­al atten­dees were told by the offi­cers to step back from Owens’ body or they’d shoot.

“We want to know why you would do this in front of his fam­i­ly,” Swiger said, per The Post. “And what gives you the right to do that to an unarmed man?”