MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The daughter of an 82-year-old Monongalia County man killed by deputies last week insists his death could have been avoided.
Crystal Hetrick told MetroNews that Darrel Hetrick was prohibited from having firearms as the result of a battery charge in June 2015.
“He shouldn’t have had a gun there to begin with,” she said. “And, when the sheriff’s department is saying that they don’t know where he got the gun, that’s bull.”
Hetrick, who lives in Texas, acknowledged her father hit her mother in June 2015, which led him into court last February, when he was told the police would remove firearms from his Price Hill Road home.
But Crystal Hetrick claims the order wasn’t followed, that the sheriff characterized her father as “a poor old man, a veteran trying to protect himself” and let him keep a pistol.
“If that pistol wasn’t there, we wouldn’t be in that position right now,” she said.
In 911 audio released Wednesday from the Aug. 27 shooting, deputies told operators the elderly man was armed.
“We have male subject refusing to drop a gun out here at 63 Price Hill Road. He’s back in the house,” an unnamed deputy is heard saying.
The elder Hetrick was also accused of removing his wife from an assisted living facility during a more recent incident in which police were called.
“The day that he picked my mom up and took her home, he was not a threat to my mother. He just didn’t understand her condition and upset her a lot,” Crystal Hetrick said. “I know he did hit her that time (in 2015) and that was a big issue for me. Any other time he’s never been threatening to her.”
Speaking to MetroNews affiliate WAJR AM, Monongalia County Sheriff Al Kisner said an arrest warrant was expedited by prosecutors the day Hetrick was shot.
“When this violation of protective order was obtained for him, there was concern that there was going to be another incident happen with his wife, and if there was, we would not be able to get there in time.”
Crystal Hetrick said the morning of the shooting began with her father visiting her mother at the medical facility where she was residing. According to her, he had been asked to leave.
An attempt had been made early on Aug. 26 to serve Darrel Hetrick with the warrant, Kisner said. When he wasn’t home, Kisner said his deputies returned just after midnight Aug. 27.
More audio from that night reveals a deputy telling 911 that Hetrick had threatened them.
“We’ve announced ourselves several times. He’s completely aware of who we are. He says he will kill us,” he said.
But Crystal Hetrick claimed her father was hard of hearing and frequently worried about burglars breaking into his home.
“In my mind, I really don’t think he knew it was the police. I don’t know why he would react that way after they’ve been out to his house three or four times since all of this started and he’s never been anything but polite to them.”
The Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department detective division has opened an internal review of the case to determine if any policies or procedures were violated.