A man is dead after opening fire on Kanawha County deputies Saturday evening.
A call came in to Kanawha County Metro 911 from a Pinch-area resident who reported that her neighbor told her she was being beaten up by her 48-year-old son. Identified Sunday as Lawrence “Pete” Vaughn.
When deputies arrived on the scene they talked to neighbors and then saw Vaughn walking around inside the house.
“They saw a man running towards the back of the residence. They thought he was trying to leave through the back door. They ran to the back of the house, waited for a moment and he didn’t appear. So they went around the side and saw him again the front living room,” according the Cpl. B.D. Humphreys.
That’s when the two deputies approached the front door.
“As they were about to knock on the door, the door flew open. (Vaughn) began shooting through the doorway. [The deputies] returned fire and he was hit multiple times.,” according to Humpheys.
The mother was not injured by her son or in the shooting. However, investigator say this is not the first time there’s been trouble between the two.
“Family members told us there has been a violent past between the son and the mother. He’d been violent with her before,” Humprheys said.
The Sheriff’s Department plans to release more information into the shooting on Monday.
Both of the deputies involved have been placed on leave until an internal investigation is complete.
The incident marks the third death in a police shooting in less than a week in the Mountain State.
On Monday police shot and killed a Georgia man just off the Interstate 64 exit in Lewisburg. He had been involved in a domestic dispute with his Greenbrier County girlfriend earlier in the day. Police say he got out of his car after a traffic stop and pointed a gun at them.
State Troopers shot and killed John Dempsey of Logan County Thursday night after he had allegedly murdered two men earlier in the week. Dempsey was killed following a police pursuit.