Lewisburg Officers Shot; Two Bodies Found In Truck

LEWISBURG, W.Va. — Two Lewisburg, W.Va., police officers were injured in a New Year’s Day shooting after a traffic stop involving a stolen SUV and a truck with two dead bodies inside.

Two Lewisburg police officers pulled over an SUV  at approximately 4 p.m.  Thursday on Interstate 64, near the Lewisburg exit,  Lt. Michael Baylous of the West Virginia State Police said in a press release.

The Chevrolet SUV had a North Carolina license plate that showed it had been stolen. During the traffic stop, a red Chevrolet truck pulled over in the area.

Baylous said as the officers were conducting the stop, the driver of the red truck shot at them with a handgun. Both officers were wounded. One officer returned fire, hitting the suspect in the leg.

Baylous said the driver of the SUV fled by driving behind a guardrail on I-64, where he hid for a short period of time. Eventually, he walked up to the interstate and turned himself in without incident. The driver of the red truck also fled over a hillside and was eventually taken into custody by the Greenbrier County Sheriff’s Department, Baylous said.

The suspects’ identities were not verified but they claimed to be father and son, Baylous said. The father was allegedly the shooter, according to Baylous.

During a search, authorities found two bodies under a mattress in the bed of the truck, according to Baylous.

State Police did not immediately identify the victims, but North Carolina’s Granville County Sheriff Brindell B. Wilkins Jr.  media outlets that the bodies were those of Jerome Faulkner, 73, and his wife, Dora Faulkner, 62.

The sheriff said the two suspects broke into the Faulkners’ home near Oak Hill on Thursday morning, set the house on fire and took the couple and their SUV.

The two Lewisburg officers and the suspected shooter were treated at Greenbrier Valley Medical Center in Fairlea, W.Va., for injuries that were not life-threatening.

The two suspects will be charged with malicious assault and attempted murder of a police officer in Greenbrier County, Baylous said.