Lance Anthony Terry, a 25-year-old Black/African American man, died as a result of gun violence in Bluefield, West Virginia, on March 16, 2015, only three days after his March 13 birthday. Although his death occurred in Bluefield, obituary information identifies Terry as a native of Atlanta, Georgia. He had attended Meadowcreek High School and was an aspiring artist whose creativity was closely tied to a gift and love for music.
Those who knew Terry remembered far more than the circumstances in which his life ended. His obituary described him as bold, bright and engaging, with a personality that could draw people toward him. Family and friends characterized him as funny, gentle, determined, poetic and kindhearted. He loved children and animals and was remembered as a peaceful soul who nevertheless stood firmly for the things he believed in. His Christian faith was also an important part of his life, reflected by the inclusion of 2 Corinthians 5:7 as his favorite scripture. He was survived by his mother, Siroun; his siblings, Jessica Brining and Roosevelt Terry; nieces and nephew Akell Terry, Savannah Brining and Ania-Lynn Terry; and numerous other relatives and loved ones. Private services were arranged through Brown Funeral Home.
The surviving online record shows that Terry's death immediately became the focus of a criminal investigation. Contemporary news reports preserved in connection with his case described him as a Bluefield shooting victim and stated that police were searching for a suspect. Subsequent coverage from WVNS reported that investigators had developed new leads while trying to locate a murder suspect in Mercer County. That progression indicates authorities had identified a specific person they believed was connected to the killing and were actively attempting to find that individual rather than treating the shooting as an unexplained death.
The investigation eventually led to an arrest. A Bluefield Daily Telegraph report preserved among the contemporary news sources for Terry's case stated that the suspect in his shooting death was arrested by U.S. Marshals. This establishes that the investigation advanced from the initial search for a wanted suspect, through the development of additional leads, and ultimately to the suspect being taken into custody.
Much of the original local reporting from 2015 is no longer readily accessible in searchable form, however, and the surviving indexed material does not provide enough independently verifiable information to responsibly identify the arrested suspect by name or detail the exact charges filed against that person. Likewise, accessible reliable sources do not clearly document an indictment, plea agreement, trial, acquittal, conviction or sentence specifically arising from Terry's killing. Because of those gaps, it would be misleading to assign a name or court outcome to the case without stronger documentation.
What remains clear from the surviving record is that Terry was fatally shot in Bluefield on March 16, 2015; police publicly sought a murder suspect and later reported new leads in the effort to locate that person; and a subsequent report stated that U.S. Marshals arrested the suspect in connection with the shooting death. Behind that investigation was a life remembered by Terry's family for music, creativity, faith, kindness and an engaging personality, qualities that formed the fuller picture of who he was beyond the violence that ended his life.
