SUMMERSVILLE, W.Va. — A Nicholas County man sat in his pickup truck in front of the Nicholas County Courthouse in Summersville as dusk took over the Saturday evening sky.
Some 26 hours earlier Nicholas County sheriff’s deputies Tom Baker and Cpl. J. Ellison encountered gunfire after arriving at a camper on Birch River following a call about a domestic disturbance.
Deputy Baker was shot in the back as he and Ellison retreated from the trailer after two men had opened fire. Baker died a short time later. Ellison suffered a gunshot wound to a leg.
State police are investigating the shooting. Nicholas County Sheriff Bill Nunley announced earlier Saturday that suspect Ritchie Holcomb, 36, had also been killed in the altercation with the deputies. Tyler Kelly, 28, the other man who was inside the camper, is now in jail charged with murder.
Just Respect
The man in the pickup had driven into Summersville Saturday evening from another part of the county. He brought with him a bouquet of flowers. After sitting in his truck for several minutes—he got out and laid the flowers with some others at the foot of the courthouse steps beneath a blue and black American Flag with a thin blue line. The memorial for Deputy Baker had started to form earlier Saturday.
The man, who chose not to be identified, told MetroNews he felt compelled to come to the courthouse to honor the fallen deputy.
“I didn’t know him,” he said choking back tears. “It’s just respect.”
Not everyone stopped at the courthouse. Others stayed in their vehicles and slowed as they passed by the building—pausing to look at the memorial.
The storefronts and light poles in downtown Summersville are the home now of blue ribbons and wreaths in honor of the deputies. One of those wreaths read, “To Protect and Serve: Blue Lives Matter.”
Other reaction came in Saturday. U.S. Senator Joe Manchin issued a statement:
“Our first responders, those who are selflessly willing to put themselves in harm’s way to protect and serve our communities, are the backbone of our state and we will not forget their legacy and service to the Mountain State,” Manchin said.
The unidentified resident at the courthouse said he wouldn’t be surprised if illegal drugs were somehow involved.
“There’s just too much stuff easily gotten away with that I think could be stopped, that should be stopped,” the man said.
Tragedy times three
The Nicholas County Sheriff’s Department has been hit with death before, the latest very recently when new deputy Travis Lawson, 22, died in an off-duty motorcycle crash on May 10.
Nearly 22 years ago, September 2000, in the sheriff’s department building just a few feet away from the Baker memorial, Nicholas County Deputy William Giacomo was killed when a DUI suspect took out a gun hidden in his boot and shot and killed the deputy.