Herbert Jeffrey Howerton Jr., a 38-year-old White male, died October 4, 2021, after being shot at a home on Burmeister Avenue in the town of Raleigh, Raleigh County, West Virginia. Deputies and EMS arrived after reports of gunfire; Howerton was alive but seriously wounded and identified the man he said shot him as Joey DeWayne Meadows while being loaded into an ambulance. He died later that day at 4:51 p.m.

Investigators say the shooting followed a heated argument among people who knew one another. According to the criminal complaint, Howerton’s girlfriend, Tabitha Templeton, told deputies she had stayed at the residence the night before, got into an altercation with Herbert Howerton Sr., and then informed Joey Meadows. Howerton Sr. gave a similar account, saying the argument began over cigarettes and that Meadows came to the door and said words to the effect of slap him, slap him, before gunfire erupted.

Meadows admitted taking a gun out of his pants and said it accidentally went off; deputies recovered the firearm and two empty shell casings. Other reports said Howerton was shot twice. Joey DeWayne Meadows, 56, was arrested and charged with murder and wanton endangerment involving a firearm and held without bond. Did anyone in the community witness the argument or the moments right before the shooting?