Sheriff Eugene Crum was fatally shot on Wednesday in his car during a lunch break near outside the Mingo County, West Virginia courthouse on Wednesday afternoon, WCHS and the Huffington Post reported. News reports say another vehicle pulled up alongside him, and when rolling down his window, he was shot at twice, the county commissioner said.
The suspect has been taken into custody, and after opening fire on responding officers, he was also eventually shot, but talking to authorities, WVMetroNews.com reported.
The shooting occurred in Williamson within a block of the Mingo County Courthouse, officials said. Sheriff Crum reportedly made drug control a central part of his platform, who worked in law enforcement for 30 years, and took office in January.
"Eugene Crum has exceeded my highest expectations as Mingo County Drug Enforcement Investigator and now as Mingo County Sheriff," said Mingo County prosecutor C. Michael Sparks in January, according to WOWK-TV.
The shooting just a few days after Kaufman County Texas DA Mike McLelland and his wife in their home over the weekend, with officials suspecting a white supremacist prison gang behind it. That killing also happened a couple of months after one of the county's assistant DA Mark Hasse was killed near his courthouse office.
Also, Colorado's head of the Department of Corrections, Tom Clements, was shot to death at his front door, apparently by white supremacist ex-convict Evan Ebel a couple of weeks ago.
