MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Monongalia County Sheriff’s department has been accused of letting an 82-year-old man who was fatally shot by deputies illegally keep a gun in his home.
But the sheriff says his department did everything it legally could to keep guns away from the man.
Saturday marks two weeks since the Monongalia County man was killed in a deputy-involved shooting. Two days after the death of Darrel Hetrick, 82, his daughter Crystal Hetrick told MetroNews her father 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.” She claimed the sheriff characterized her father as “a poor old man, a veteran trying to protect himself” and let him keep a pistol.
Monongalia County Sheriff Al Kisner refutes the accusation. He said police aren’t responsible for Hetrick having a gun the night deputies went to serve an arrest warrant on the Price Hill Road home Aug. 27 shortly after midnight.
On Feb. 19, Kisner said, a court order was issued requiring deputies to retrieve any firearms Hetrick had at his home.
“Those are civil orders. We’re not permitted to go into somebody’s house to search for guns. We are at their mercy to tell us these are the guns that we have and we will freely give them up to you.”
During a later instance where Hetrick was accused of taking his wife from a care facility without authorization from her legal guardian as had been ordered, Kisner said deputies did become aware of a gun still in the man’s home.
“Mr. Hetrick’s niece came up to him (Deputy Tony Bice) and said ‘My uncle has another weapon in his house.’ He said, ‘I don’t have an order on that but if you want to get it out of there, you can do that if you want to.’ So, she went back in the house, retrieved the gun and asked Deputy Bice if he would unload it for her. He unloaded it and she took the weapon and put it back in her bag and put it in her car and left with it.”
Deputies were there to return Hetrick’s wife to the care facility.
On August 26, Hetrick was reportedly at the facility again without authorization and was asked to leave.
That was a violation of a previous order and, according to Kisner, an arrest warrant was expedited by prosecutors that day. Deputies went to the residence just after midnight August 27.
“They announced themselves. And, in one of his responses, he said ‘I know who you are.’ So, it’s not that he didn’t hear who he said they were. So, those statements that he probably didn’t know who they were or he was too startled, I don’t believe that is accurate,” Kisner said.
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.
Shortly after, shots fired were announced on police radio traffic.
“There are situations such as this one when you knock on someone’s door, their first response to you is to show up at the door with a gun and point it at you. Your use of force continuum has gone from ‘I’m knocking on your door and asking you to comply with something’ to ‘now we’re in a very serious possible lethal force issue,'” Kisner said.
As the investigation into the fatal shooting of Hetrick continued, the sheriff indicated one officer was already familiar with the gun found at the scene.
“They showed a photo of that gun to Deputy Bice and asked him if that was the same gun he had seen the day he was out there on July 20th. Deputy Bice said that did appear to be the same gun.”
Click to read previous article with 911 audio of the night of the fatal deputy involved shooting.