MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — State police confirm the Martinsburg woman shot and killed Saturday afternoon during a murder-suicide was in the driver seat of the car.
Melody Cook, 30, pulled into the parking lot of the Martinsburg State Police Detachment at shortly after noon when troopers said she was shot and killed by her husband Jonathan Cook, 32, who was in the passenger seat. Jonathan then turned the gun on himself.
The couple’s 10-year-old daughter was in the car. A bystander helped her out of the vehicle.
“It has not been determined yet, what was going on inside of the vehicle for her to pull into the parking lot of the detachment and something they are still working on putting the timeline and pieces together,” State Police First Sergeant J. A. Meeks said in a statement to the Panhandle News Network. “We do not have any record that I located where there would have been any incidents of police presence prior to this one by the WVSP.”
Meeks said going forward they are concerned about the impact on the couple’s daughter.
“Right now, more than anything our hearts and prayers are going out to the little girl who had to witness this selfish act of violence and the thought of how she is going to cope as the days, weeks, and years go by considering her life was changed in a matter of seconds,” Meeks said.