Khuyen Van Le, a 45-year-old Asian male from Summersville, West Virginia, was killed on the evening of July 28, 2022, in a shooting at Jo’s Nails & Spa in the Merchant Walk shopping center. Public reports identified him as a Summersville resident and described him and Phi Anh Le, 40, as a married couple connected to the salon. Khuyen was born in Vietnam on June 19, 1977, and his obituary listed surviving family members, including his children, parents, and siblings.
The violence
unfolded around 6:30 p.m. that Thursday evening. Summersville police responded to an active shooter call at Jo’s Nails & Spa, a business that sat in a busy shopping area where other employees and customers nearby heard gunfire and took cover. Authorities later said Patrick Wayne Cater, 52, had been working at the salon earlier that day, left, and returned armed with a semiautomatic pistol. Once inside, Cater fatally shot Khuyen Van Le and Phi Anh Le. Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene.
Police identified Cater as the shooter. When officers arrived, he was still armed, and two Summersville officers engaged him, shot him, and stopped the threat. Cater was taken to Summersville Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Because the accused gunman died during the police response, there were no arrests, criminal charges, trial, or conviction connected to the killings.
Investigators also looked at the relationship between Cater and the victims. West Virginia State Police later said Khuyen Van Le and Cater were co-lease owners of the business, which was the only known connection publicly identified at that stage of the investigation. Other reports described Cater as a co-worker or someone who worked at the salon. Police said several other people were inside the business when the shooting happened, but they were not physically injured. The motive was not publicly established in the immediate aftermath, and authorities described the incident as isolated.
The shooting shook Summersville, a small community where residents and neighboring businesses were stunned by the sudden violence. Flowers were placed at the door of the salon after the deaths, and the Nicholas County school system said some students had been in the area or were connected to those killed, prompting the district to offer crisis counseling. What began as an ordinary evening at a local nail salon ended with Khuyen Van Le and Phi Anh Le dead, the suspected gunman killed by police, and the community left searching for answers about why the violence happened.
