Bradi James Florence, an 18-year-old White male from Parkersburg, West Virginia, was fatally wounded in a shooting that began on the afternoon of December 8, 2025, near the Southwood Park basketball courts on Belmont Road in South Parkersburg. Although some obituary information lists his death as December 9, Parkersburg Police and contemporary news reports stated that Florence remained hospitalized after the shooting and died from his injuries on Thursday, December 11.
Florence was a 2025 graduate of Parkersburg South High School and had completed an electrician’s certificate through the Caperton Center, with plans to continue pursuing his electrical certification.
The shooting occurred shortly before 2 p.m. in the area of the 2300 block of Belmont Road, close to Southwood Park, a residential neighborhood and Gihon Elementary School. Florence was sitting in a parked vehicle with Devon Forshey and Jairan Gandee when Butch Wayne Knight allegedly approached. Investigators said Knight and the occupants knew one another and that there was a brief verbal exchange before gunfire erupted. Prosecutors later said evidence indicated Knight had gone to the area knowing Florence would be there and intending to confront him. Witness accounts and surveillance footage reportedly showed Knight being dropped off about a block away and walking toward the parked vehicle from behind.
According to prosecutors, the conversation at the vehicle lasted only about 10 seconds before Knight allegedly fired eight rounds into it. Florence was struck in the back of the head area and in the leg. Forshey was also wounded, reportedly in the back or shoulder area, while Gandee escaped the gunfire without being hit. Despite their injuries, the occupants were able to get the vehicle away from the immediate shooting scene and travel approximately one block to Pennsylvania Avenue, where authorities responded and the wounded victims were taken for medical treatment at WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center. Police initially described both wounded victims as hospitalized, with Florence suffering the more serious injuries.
Knight allegedly fled after the gunfire, returning to the vehicle from which prosecutors said he had previously been dropped off. Police quickly developed him as a suspect and circulated information about the vehicle associated with him. Officers located him in the Neal Street area within minutes of the initial emergency call and took him into custody. Prosecutors later said Knight went to a location on Neal Street that he was known to frequent and that the suspected firearm was taken inside the residence and hidden before investigators recovered it. Early police reports said officers had Knight in custody within about six minutes of the initial 911 call, while later court testimony described his apprehension as occurring roughly eight to 10 minutes after the shooting.
Because Florence was still alive immediately after the shooting, Knight was originally charged with three counts of attempted murder, corresponding to the three people who had been inside the vehicle. He was arraigned in Wood County Magistrate Court, and bond was initially set at $900,000. He did not post bond and was placed in custody pending transfer to the North Central Regional Jail. After Florence died from his gunshot injuries, authorities upgraded the case. Parkersburg Police Chief Matthew Board announced that Knight was being charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.
Knight later appeared in Wood County Circuit Court for a bond hearing. Prosecutor Pat Lefebure argued that the seriousness of the allegations, the number of shots fired, the death of Florence, the wounding of another occupant, and the danger created for the third person and the surrounding neighborhood justified holding Knight without bond. The prosecution also emphasized that the shooting occurred near an elementary school around the time students were preparing to leave for the day and asserted that Knight had deliberately gone to the area to confront Florence. Defense attorney Angela Brunicardi Doss argued that Knight had no prior criminal or violent criminal history, had strong ties to the area and should be presumed innocent. She requested a bond with safeguards such as home confinement, but Circuit Judge Jason Wharton denied bond and ordered Knight to remain incarcerated.
The case advanced further in May 2026 when a Wood County grand jury returned an indictment against Knight. The indictment charged him with murder in Florence’s death, two counts of attempted murder involving the other occupants of the vehicle, and eight counts of wanton endangerment involving a firearm, reflecting the eight shots prosecutors said were fired into the vehicle. Knight remained confined at the North Central Regional Jail without bond following the indictment.
As of the most recent publicly available reporting located for the case, Knight had been arrested, denied bond and formally indicted, but no published source reviewed reported that the case had reached a trial, guilty plea, acquittal or conviction. The allegations against him therefore remained pending criminal charges, and he remained presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. The available reporting identifies Knight as the person accused of carrying out the shooting; no additional person had been publicly charged as a second shooter or accomplice in Florence’s killing in the sources reviewed.
