On a summer evening in West Virginia, the life of Danny Wayne Marks, a 56-year-old White/Caucasian male, was tragically cut short. The events that led to his death on July 25, 2018, began to unfold with a police investigation into a stolen ATV. Law enforcement officers were searching for Andrew "A.J." King in connection with the theft and had tracked him to a residence in the Walton area, near Clendenin. When police located King, he fled on the stolen ATV, wrecked it, and then continued his escape on foot, managing to evade capture for several hours.
Later that night, the situation escalated dramatically. Officers were notified that King was on the back porch of a home on Charleston Road. As they were en route, they received another report: shots had been fired at that same address. Upon their arrival, they discovered Danny Marks in his front yard with a gunshot wound to the head. He was unconscious but still breathing and was rushed to a Charleston hospital.
While attending to Marks, officers heard more gunfire from a neighboring home, which belonged to Marks's brother.
The gunman, identified as King, was then seen running along U.S. 119, holding a pistol and firing at the officers. At the brother's residence, King had shot a second person, Terri Paxton, who was in a truck in the driveway. Paxton sustained non-life-threatening injuries and survived the attack. An extensive manhunt for King ensued, involving multiple law enforcement agencies and a state police helicopter, which led to the closure of a section of the highway.
The following morning, Andrew "A.J." King was found hiding in a wooded area not far from the scene of the shootings and was taken into custody. He was hospitalized for injuries he sustained in the ATV crash prior to the shootings. Danny Marks, a well-known local businessman who owned a towing company and had once been a candidate for sheriff, succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at the hospital. King was subsequently charged with murder for the death of Danny Marks and attempted murder for the shooting of Terri Paxton, among other charges related to the incident. A grand jury later indicted him on these charges.
