CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A New York man wanted in Charleston for a shooting earlier this year has been taken into custody. Steven Thompson, 22, was arrested Wednesday morning and arraigned in front of a Kanawha County magistrate.
Thompson is charged with malicious wounding, robbery and kidnapping. He allegedly shot 22-year-old Ollie Nicholson of Detroit in the face and the back in the doorway of a vacant home on Red Oak Street on Charleston’s West Side June 6. Nicholson has since recovered from those wounds.
Charleston Police Department Chief of Detectives Lt. Steve Cooper said police have been searching for Thompson for the past 5 months.
“We believe he’s been back and forth [between New York and Charleston]. We got a good location today, a tip that actually panned out,” Cooper told reporters Wednesday afternoon.
Thompson was found hiding out in an apartment at Little Page Terrace. Cooper said Thompson wasn’t hard to find.
“When we caught him he had taken a blanket from a small child that was in the house and was trying to hide under that,” according to Cooper.
Thompson told a reporter from WSAZ-TV he had nothing to do with the shooting.
“Obviously it was a shooting because he got shot but I just know I didn’t shoot anybody. It’s just a messed up predicament. Hopefully, God-willing, they find out what’s going on and I get out of this,” Thompson said.
Cooper said the department is glad to have Thompson behind bars.
“We do get a sense of satisfaction when we arrest someone who has been on the run and we’ve been looking for. Now we’ve got another dangerous person off the streets.”
Thompson is being held at the South Central Regional Jail.