Patrick L. Jefferson, a 38-year-old Black / African American male from Charleston, West Virginia, was found dead on March 18, 2022, inside a residence in the 100 block of McKee Street. The discovery began with an uneasy moment outside the home, when a man reportedly went there to meet someone and got no answer at the door. He tried calling the person inside, and when he could hear the phone ringing from within the residence but still received no response, he became suspicious and contacted
Charleston police.
When officers arrived, they found the door slightly open. After knocking and receiving no answer, they entered the residence and found Jefferson dead on the floor. Police said he had suffered multiple gunshot wounds. The circumstances immediately turned the scene into a homicide investigation, with detectives working from the unsettling detail that Jefferson had apparently been inside while his phone rang unanswered and the door remained ajar.
Charleston police identified Jefferson as the victim and confirmed he was from Charleston. Early reports did not describe a public motive, did not name a suspect, and did not announce an arrest in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. The case became part of a violent year in Charleston, where police later discussed the city’s homicide numbers and noted that Jefferson’s killing was among the cases still unresolved at that time.
As of later reporting in 2022, Jefferson’s shooting death had not resulted in publicly reported charges or arrests. In coverage of Charleston’s homicide investigations that year, police indicated that the shooting death of Patrick Jefferson in the 100 block of McKee Street was one of the cases in which charges had not been filed and no arrest had been made. No trial or conviction tied to his death was publicly reported in the sources reviewed.
The death of Patrick Jefferson remains described publicly as a fatal shooting inside a Charleston residence, beginning with a missed meeting, a ringing phone, and a door found partly open. What was known was that he was found shot multiple times and that police treated the case as a homicide. What remained unclear in public reporting was who entered that home, what led to the gunfire, and whether investigators later developed a suspect strong enough to charge.
