Eric Neal Kinder, a 54-year-old White/Caucasian male, died on July 14, 2021, in Nellis, West Virginia, after a domestic argument inside a Boone County home escalated into a fatal shooting. The incident unfolded on Ridgeview Nellis Road, where West Virginia State Police responded to a report of a domestic situation. By the time authorities arrived, investigators said the confrontation had already turned violent, leaving Kinder dead from a gunshot wound.
According to reports from West Virginia State Police, the argument began in a painfully ordinary way: over a dog that was sick and had vomited inside the home. Investigators said the dispute first involved Eric Kinder and his mother, who was also the grandmother of the accused shooter. As tensions rose, Kinder’s son, 24-year-old William Eric Kinder, also identified in some reports as Eric William Kinder, became involved in the argument.
Police said the conflict continued until the younger Kinder allegedly fired a gun, striking his father.
Other family members were reportedly present at the scene when the shooting happened. After the gunfire, reports said the younger Kinder left the residence and went to another home nearby, where he called 911 and surrendered. Troopers later took him into custody. The case was described by authorities as a domestic violence-related shooting, with investigators noting that there had been a history of domestic violence within the family.
William Eric Kinder, of Nellis, was arrested the same day and charged with murder. Later reporting described the charge as first-degree murder. At the time of the early reports, he was being held without bond, since bond on a murder charge in West Virginia would have to be set by a circuit court judge. The investigation was still ongoing in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.
Online reports clearly identify William Eric Kinder as the suspect arrested in connection with Eric Neal Kinder’s death, but available public news coverage did not show a confirmed trial outcome, conviction, acquittal, plea, or sentencing. What is documented is that Eric Kinder’s death came during a family dispute that began over a sick dog and ended with his son accused of firing the shot that killed him.
