Teddy Wade Toler was a 48-year-old White male from Hanover, West Virginia, whose life ended in a fatal shooting on Friday, August 22, 2025. Although some earlier reports had listed him as 47, his obituary gives his birth date as March 31, 1977, confirming that he was 48 when he died. Known to many as “Wade,” Toler was born in Welch, West Virginia, graduated from Baileysville High School, and was remembered by his family as a kind and gentle person. He was the son of the late Retha Lester Toler and Teddy Toler, the father of Karisma and Zachery Toler, and the brother of Karen Woods and Regina Toler.
The circumstances surrounding Toler’s death quickly drew the attention of the Wyoming County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Brad Ellison confirmed that Toler was shot in the Hanover area on August 22 and died from his injuries. Authorities identified Austin Cline, Toler’s nephew and neighbor, as the person who shot him.
Investigators initially released few details about what led to the encounter, and the Sheriff’s Office said it intended to gather all available evidence before determining whether criminal charges were warranted. The West Virginia State Police Crime Scene Team was also assisting county investigators. As of August 25, three days after the shooting, authorities had not filed charges against Cline in connection with Toler’s death.
The fatal shooting carried an especially troubling history because Toler and Cline had already been involved in a shooting incident only months earlier. On December 15, 2024, West Virginia State Police responded to a shooting complaint on Lower Muzzle Road in Hanover. Investigators said Cline, who was 29 at the time, had been involved in a domestic altercation with his uncle and allegedly fired a gun toward Toler. The shot struck the ground near Toler’s feet rather than hitting him, and Toler escaped that encounter without being injured. Police noted that the two relatives lived adjacent to one another, placing them in close proximity even after the confrontation.
That December incident led to Cline’s arrest. State Police charged him with wanton endangerment, domestic assault, and possession of a controlled substance. He was taken to the Southern Regional Jail while awaiting further court proceedings; one contemporaneous report said he was being held on a $5,000 bond, while another reported that he was awaiting a preliminary hearing. Thus, the man later identified as the shooter in Toler’s death had already been arrested for allegedly firing a weapon at Toler during a previous family dispute.
When gunfire again involved the two relatives on August 22, 2025, the result was no longer a near miss. This time Toler was fatally wounded. News reports identified Cline as the shooter and emphasized the earlier incident between the same two men, but authorities did not immediately explain whether the August confrontation arose from another dispute, whether investigators were examining a claim of self-defense, or what evidence had been recovered at the scene. Sheriff Ellison said the question of possible charges would be resolved only after a thorough investigation, while the Sheriff’s Office publicly described its efforts as an evidence-gathering process rather than announcing an immediate arrest.
Available online reporting located for the case does not document a subsequent arrest, criminal charge, trial, or conviction arising from the August 22 fatal shooting. The latest substantive reports found continued to identify Austin Cline as the person authorities said shot Toler while noting that no charges had been filed at that stage of the investigation. That distinction is important: Cline had been arrested and charged in the separate December 2024 incident involving Toler, but the published accounts of the August 2025 death did not report that he had been charged with murder, manslaughter, or another offense connected to the fatal shooting.
While investigators worked through the circumstances of his death, Toler’s family prepared to bury him in the community where he had lived. His obituary described him as a devoted father, brother, uncle, cousin, and friend whose kindness and laughter were remembered by those around him. Visitation was scheduled for August 29, 2025, at Mounts Funeral Home in Gilbert, followed by funeral services that afternoon and burial in the Toler Cemetery in Hanover. The funeral notice reflected the personal loss behind the police investigation: a man known to his family and friends as Wade was gone, and the person publicly identified as having fired the fatal shot was his own nephew, someone who had also been accused of shooting at him less than a year earlier.
