HAMLIN, W.Va. — Bond is set at $2 million cash only for a Lincoln County man accused of shooting a State Police trooper during a domestic violence incident.
Jeremiah Yeager, 40, of Alum Creek, was arraigned Wednesday in Lincoln County Magistrate Court after being released from the hospital.
He was charged with domestic assault, domestic battery, malicious wounding, attempted murder on a police officer, obstruction, brandishing and strangulation.
Yeager is accused of shooting Cpl. David Fry with West Virginia State Police Tuesday after Fry responded to a domestic violence call at an apartment complex on Midway Road in Alum Creek.
State Police Superintendent Col. Jan Cahill told MetroNews Fry was treated for non-life threatening injuries.
“He was struck twice,” Cahill said. “One was an upper torso and a wrist wound as well.”
On Tuesday night, police say Yeager and a woman got into an argument. The woman told troopers Yeager had not slept for four days and that he was high on meth.
“We thought methamphetamine, a binge of a drug episode there that had been going on for a couple days,” Cahill said.
The criminal complaint said Yeager took a phone cord and began choking the woman until she passed out. When the woman regained consciousness, she found Yeager in the kitchen with a rifle and revolver. The woman told police Yeager threatened to kill her multiple times.
Cpl. Fry arrived on scene and ordered Yeager to drop the gun, according to the criminal complaint. The woman said she heard gun shots, then fled the scene. Fry was able to drive himself to meet EMS at the Southridge Walmart in Kanawha County.
The incident resulted in a stand off with police for several hours because Yeager refused to come out of the apartment. Police eventually found Yeager in the bathroom and took him into custody.
Cahill said domestic violence calls are the worst calls to get.
“In this day in age, just about everybody you encounter in this types of situations are armed and people are just on these drug binges, which is what happened in this situation, so yeah. It’s the worse call,” he said.
During Yeager’s arraignment, he told reporters he made a “big mistake” and that it was a “horrible accident.”