William B. Willie Bartley Jr., 53, was shot and killed on June 13, 2016, during a confrontation on property along Gamble Lane in the Valley High Timber Farms subdivision west of Great Cacapon, West Virginia. The shooting occurred near a vacant residence at 1162 Gamble Lane that bordered property occupied by Erick David Shute. Willie Bartley and his son, Travis Bartley, and a neighbor, Jack Douglas of Great Cacapon, were all killed; a fourth man, Terry Marks, survived after fleeing into the woods.

According to testimony introduced at later proceedings, the four men arrived to clear logs and debris blocking the driveway. Shute appeared armed with a rifle and an argument escalated across the property boundary. Marks testified that Shute opened fire as Douglas attempted to call police; medical testimony described wounds to Willie Bartley’s face and neck, Travis’s abdomen and back, and Douglas’s upper back. Shute left the scene, disposed of Douglas’s cellphone in water and fled; he was captured after an interstate manhunt and later indicted on murder and related charges. What details from the scene or witnesses might still clarify how the confrontation began?