Steven Lewis Pfalzgraf, a 24-year-old White/Caucasian man from Parkersburg, West Virginia, died on January 14, 2014, after he was shot by a Parkersburg police detective outside the Grand Central Mall in Vienna. The confrontation developed suddenly shortly before 1 p.m., when authorities said John Ragalyi stole a woman’s purse from the mall’s food court. Several law-enforcement officers happened to be at the mall for a training exercise, and when the victim called for help, Parkersburg detectives P.M. Edelen and J.M. Stalnaker pursued Ragalyi and identified themselves as police officers. Pfalzgraf fled from the area with Ragalyi, and the two headed into the parking lot toward Pfalzgraf’s vehicle.
Investigators said Ragalyi and Pfalzgraf entered the vehicle, where Ragalyi’s wife, Jenna Ragalyi, was also present. Detective Stalnaker approached and attempted to take the keys from the ignition in an effort to prevent the vehicle from leaving.
According to the official account later presented to a Wood County grand jury, Pfalzgraf put the vehicle into motion while Stalnaker was still attempting to stop it, causing the detective to be dragged along with the moving car. Stalnaker eventually managed to break free. Investigators said Pfalzgraf then turned the vehicle toward Detective Edelen and drove forward in his direction.
Faced with the approaching vehicle, Edelen fired multiple rounds. Pfalzgraf was struck and fatally wounded, but the vehicle continued moving for several hundred feet before coming to a stop near the Toys R Us area of the shopping complex. Pfalzgraf died at the scene. John and Jenna Ragalyi fled from the stopped vehicle on foot, prompting authorities to begin an extensive search that included police K-9 units and a West Virginia State Police helicopter. Several hours later, at approximately 5 p.m., the pair turned themselves in at the Parkersburg Police Department. Contemporary reporting said they had not yet been charged at that point and that authorities were consulting with the Wood County prosecutor regarding the incident.
Because Pfalzgraf had been killed by a police officer, the shooting itself became the subject of separate official scrutiny. The West Virginia State Police investigated the circumstances surrounding the shooting, while the Parkersburg Police Department conducted its own internal review. In March 2014, Police Chief Joe Martin announced that the internal investigation had found no wrongdoing by Detective Edelen and concluded that his use of deadly force had been within department guidelines. Even with that determination, officials planned to submit the case to a Wood County grand jury so that an independent group of citizens could examine the evidence surrounding the fatal encounter.
The State Police eventually provided the findings of their investigation to Wood County Prosecuting Attorney Jason Wharton. In July 2014, a special Wood County grand jury considered the shooting and unanimously declined to indict Edelen. The grand jury concluded that Edelen had acted appropriately in self-defense and in defense of others when he fired at the vehicle being driven toward him. Its report found that the detective had not violated West Virginia law. The decision effectively ended the possibility of criminal prosecution of Edelen arising from Pfalzgraf’s death, reinforcing the earlier internal police determination that the shooting was justified.
Available contemporary reporting identifies John Ragalyi as the person accused of taking the purse that set the chain of events into motion and Jenna Ragalyi as the passenger who fled with him after Pfalzgraf’s vehicle stopped. Both surrendered to police on the day of the shooting, but the immediate reports specifically noted that charges had not yet been filed against them. Later coverage concentrating on the investigations and grand-jury review of Pfalzgraf’s shooting does not document a trial or conviction of either John or Jenna Ragalyi stemming specifically from the January 14 incident. The most clearly documented legal resolution connected with Pfalzgraf’s death was the grand jury’s determination that Detective Edelen would face no criminal charge for firing the shots that killed Pfalzgraf.
