Beckley lost a promising young athlete on the evening of May 2, 2021. Eighteen-year-old Dwayne Richardson Jr., a junior at Woodrow Wilson High School and a noted basketball player, was shot in the chest while with a group at a residence on Terrill Street in East Beckley around 9:20 p.m. Friends tried to rush him to the hospital, flagged down police and EMS, and he was airlifted to Charleston Area Medical Center, where he died of his wounds.

The death was initially investigated as a homicide but police later described the shooting as accidental. Authorities say 20-year-old Jeriamyah Jacob Fortner of Beckley was recklessly handling an AR-15, believed the rifle was unloaded, pointed it at the group and pulled the trigger. Fortner was charged with voluntary manslaughter and four counts of wanton endangerment; he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in August 2021 and in November 2021 was sentenced to the maximum 15 years in prison.

Did anyone in Beckley know Dwayne or have information about what happened that night?