Landis Mitchell Govan, a 19-year-old Black/African American male from the Martinsburg, West Virginia area, was fatally wounded during an early-morning shooting in Berkeley County on June 17, 2025. Although June 17 has sometimes been associated with his death because that was the day he was shot, law-enforcement-based reporting states that he remained hospitalized afterward and was pronounced dead at Berkeley Medical Center at approximately 3:56 p.m. on June 22.
His family later said that he was taken off life support on June 25 while his organs were being donated, and his funeral-home obituary lists June 25 as the date he passed away.
The events began shortly after 3 a.m. on June 17 when Berkeley County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to Rutter’s gas station at 1390 Hedgesville Road following a report of a shooting. Deputies arrived to find Govan suffering from a gunshot wound and arranged for him to be transported for emergency treatment. The suspected shooter had left before officers arrived, prompting deputies to search the surrounding area. Deputy Little located Elias Michael Jenkins nearby, and Jenkins was taken into custody without incident. Authorities initially charged him with attempted murder and lodged him in the Eastern Regional Jail on a $150,000 bond while detectives with the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Unit worked to reconstruct what had happened.
Details that emerged from the criminal complaint and later court proceedings provided a fuller account than the first reports from the gas station. Investigators said Govan and Jenkins knew one another and were traveling with other people in a vehicle along Harlan Springs Road near Hedgesville. During the ride, Govan reportedly became involved in a verbal dispute with his girlfriend. Authorities alleged that Jenkins objected to something being said during that argument and confronted Govan. Jenkins was accused of firing a gun and striking Govan in the head. Later information from Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Kinser indicated that five people were inside the vehicle, with Jenkins allegedly seated in the front passenger seat and Govan in the back seat when the firearm was discharged. Those allegations subsequently became important because prosecutors pursued additional wanton-endangerment charges based on the danger posed to the other occupants of the vehicle.
Govan was taken to Berkeley Medical Center with critical injuries. Authorities reported that he remained hospitalized until he was pronounced dead on June 22, five days after the shooting. The hospital notified a Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant of his death on June 23. Once Govan’s death was formally reported, the criminal case against Jenkins changed from an attempted-murder prosecution into a homicide case. The attempted-murder charge was refiled as murder, and subsequent reports stated that Jenkins faced counts of both first-degree and second-degree murder. He entered a not-guilty plea on June 24 and, after the murder charges were filed, was reported to be held without bond at the Eastern Regional Jail. A preliminary hearing was scheduled before Magistrate Sandy Hamilton for June 30.
Govan’s family described the loss as devastating. His mother said he was the oldest of seven brothers and remembered him as intelligent, funny and willing to help other people. His obituary similarly described someone devoted to his younger brothers and family who enjoyed basketball, singing and dancing. Music was described by his mother as a particular passion. The family also said that after the shooting and hospitalization, Govan became an organ donor, allowing others to benefit from his organs after his death.
The case continued well beyond Jenkins’ initial arrest. By the February 2026 Berkeley County grand-jury term, prosecutors were still pursuing him in connection with the killing. Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Kinser said Jenkins had been indicted on a murder charge, use of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and two counts of wanton endangerment. Kinser explained that the wanton-endangerment allegations reflected the presence of several other people in the vehicle when the gun was allegedly fired. The February indictment shows that the prosecution had advanced from the original arrest and preliminary charging stage into circuit-court felony proceedings.
Public reporting located through August 2026 identifies Jenkins as the accused shooter and does not identify an additional suspect accused of participating in Govan’s killing. The most recent substantive reporting located, published March 1, 2026, continued to describe the accusations against Jenkins as pending charges following the grand-jury indictment; it did not report a trial verdict, guilty plea, acquittal, or conviction. Jenkins therefore remained an accused defendant in the publicly reported record, and the allegations against him had not been established by a reported criminal conviction in the sources located.
