“Never in my life have I dealt with anything like this,” Mandy Swiger said. Mandy, cousin of Jason Arnie Owens, was together with him and their family during the burial of Owens’ father. No one expected that they would be mourning one more person that day.
On August 24, 37-year-old Jason Owens, from West Virginia, was one of the pallbearers during his father’s funeral. After helping place the casket inside the hearse, someone from the crowd shouted his name. Shots were fired and a few moments after, Owens was dead. He was killed in front of his 18-year-old son.
“There was no warning whatsoever,” family friend Cassandra Whitecotton said.
The shots were fired by US Marshals who came to the funeral to serve him with a fugitive warrant.
Owens was on the US Marshals’ fugitive list, but it is unclear why, and officials aren’t talking due to an ongoing investigation. Previously, Owens was arrested and was given a 13-year sentence but was released on parole last April 2021. Regarding the funeral shooting, authorities say that Owens was armed and that he tried to shoot the officers when they went to arrest him. They also said that the officers tried to deliver first aid, but the attempt was in vain. Security consultant Tracy Hahn added that the officers must have known the risks, assuming Owens was armed, and perhaps was a escape risk, and chose to shoot Owens on the spot.
“They yelled Jason’s name. They just said ‘Jason’ and then started firing,” Whitecotton said. “There was no identifications they were US Marshals — anything. They did not render this man any aid at all. Never once they touched him to render any aid whatsoever.”
The officers’ claims that Owens was armed were contested by those who were present at the scene and said that Owens was not carrying any firearms. They added that the officers were not in uniform and no warning was given before they fired shots. According to Denzil Pratt, a family friend of the Owens family, no one helped Owens after he fell, despite still being alive after the shooting. Pratt said that they merely covered him with cloth and that those who tried to help were told that they would be shot as well. Unfortunately, no video footage of the scene is available. The state police have also continued to ignore questions and messages.
Owens’ family members are appalled by what happened, especially since the killing was done during a family’s moment of mourning. The incident has also sparked the community’s anger towards the police. Last August 25, a private Facebook group “Justice for Jason Owens” was created. Currently, it has around 1,000 followers. The family and the community continue to ask for justice for Jason Owens’ untimely death.