Rick Dean Wilcox, a 65-year-old White/Caucasian man, died on February 19, 2014, after an encounter with police inside a residence in the 1400 block of West Virginia Avenue in Dunbar, West Virginia. Dunbar Police Department officers had gone to the home that day to serve Wilcox with a domestic violence petition that had been issued earlier the same day. The petition required him to leave the residence.
According to the official account of the incident, Wilcox initially met the officers at the door, but instead of leaving, he locked the door and went farther into the house. Family members were outside the residence and provided officers with a key so they could enter.
After entering the home, officers saw Wilcox upstairs. He began coming down the stairs and encountered the officers, but then turned and headed back upstairs. During the rapidly developing situation, family members warned police that Wilcox might have access to a firearm. Officers followed him upstairs, where a physical struggle began. During that struggle, authorities reported that Wilcox produced a handgun and suffered a gunshot wound from his own weapon. The Kanawha County Sheriff's Office subsequently described the shooting as self-inflicted and occurring while Wilcox was struggling with the officers.
The sound of the gunshot prompted officers to immediately contact Metro 911 and request additional assistance. Personnel from the Dunbar Police Department, South Charleston Police Department, and Kanawha County Sheriff's Office converged on the residence within minutes. The Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority also dispatched emergency medical personnel, who began life-saving treatment when they arrived. Wilcox was transported from the residence to Thomas Memorial Hospital, but despite the emergency response and medical efforts, he was later pronounced dead. Authorities reported that no one else involved in the confrontation suffered serious injuries.
Because the fatal shooting occurred during a confrontation involving police officers, the circumstances did not simply end with the initial response. The Dunbar police chief requested that the Kanawha Bureau of Investigation handle the investigation into what had happened inside the home. Investigators remained involved overnight, searching the scene and interviewing witnesses in an effort to reconstruct the sequence of events. The Sheriff's Office said the investigation was still active when additional information was released the following morning.
Available official information does not identify another person as a suspect in Wilcox's death and does not report an arrest, criminal charge, prosecution, trial, or conviction arising from the fatal shooting. The account released by investigators stated that Wilcox was wounded by his own handgun during the struggle rather than being shot by an alleged assailant. Consequently, the investigation centered on determining exactly how the confrontation unfolded and documenting the circumstances surrounding the police encounter rather than pursuing a separate homicide suspect.
