State Police assigned to special duty at the West Virginia State Fair found themselves involved in two separate incidents in Greenbrier County that led to fatalities over the weekend.
On Friday night, a trooper who tried to assist a Lewisburg Police Department officer collided with another vehicle along U.S. 60 in Lewisburg. The vehicle’s driver, Neil Parker, 34, of Lewisburg, died Saturday at a Charleston hospital.
The next evening, officers stopped an Ohio man who shot and wounded a Greenbrier sheriff’s deputy, shot and killed his own daughter and tried to kill himself, State Police spokesman Sgt. Jay Powers said Sunday. Police later learned the shooter, John Richard Mayhew Jr., was wanted in Columbus, Ohio, in connection with the murder of his ex-wife and her fiancé.
Greenbrier County Sheriff’s Deputy Nathan Hershman stopped Mayhew’s car at about 8 p.m. Saturday, because he had no inspection sticker, Powers said. Mayhew’s Mazda Protégé had a West Virginia license plate that turned out to be stolen, he said. When Hershman began to question Mayhew, Mayhew pulled out a handgun and shot Hershman once. The bullet went through his arm and into his chest, collapsing a lung.
The deputy fired a couple of shots in return and Mayhew fled. Hershman got into his patrol car and was able to radio information about the incident to his supervisor before he collapsed.
Mayhew tried to hijack another vehicle at the intersection of U.S. 60 and W.Va. 12, Powers said. He fired shots at the hood and windshield, but the occupants escaped unharmed. Mayhew turned around and headed back north on W.Va. 12, hit a State Police cruiser that had stopped to set up a barricade, and continued past another barricade before the vehicle was disabled by stop sticks, police said.
Police told Mayhew several times to get out of the car, but he did not, Powers said. He eventually tossed out a weapon and was arrested.
Police then discovered that Mayhew had shot his daughter, who was a passenger in the vehicle, in the chest and himself in the chest with a 9 mm handgun.
His daughter, Christina McKibben, 18, of Columbus, died before rescuers could get her to a hospital, Powers said. Mayhew, 35, was flown to Roanoke Memorial Hospital in Virginia, where he was in serious condition Sunday, Powers said.
Hershman, the Greenbrier County deputy, was listed in stable to fair condition at Greenbrier Valley Medical Center in Ronceverte, hospital spokeswoman Mary Page Nemcik said Sunday afternoon.
Police later learned that Mayhew had rigged both seats of his car with explosive devices that were set to go off, Powers said. “He was ready to go out with a bang,” he said.
State Police have no idea why Mayhew and his daughter were in Greenbrier County on Saturday, Powers said. “He had no family members down here that we know of.”
Mayhew’s ex-wife, Tamara McKibben Aspell, 34, and her fiancé, Franklin Rigsby, 39, were shot to death late Thursday in the home they shared with Aspell’s four children. The three other children are with their biological father, Norman said.
Mayhew will be served with two murder warrants and one kidnapping warrant from Columbus, Powers said.
Mayhew served an eight-year prison term for kidnapping and aggravated burglary in a 1992 incident involving another former wife, court records show. Prosecutors said he broke into the woman’s home and forced her into a car at gunpoint, freeing her four hours later when she promised to rekindle the romance. link to story