Bennett K. Hatfield, 59, of Charleston, West Virginia, was killed while tending the graves of family members at Mountain View Memory Gardens in Maher, Mingo County. He traveled there on Sunday, May 22, 2016, to clean his late wife Debbie’s headstone and prepare graves for Memorial Day. Investigators say two strangers, Anthony Raheem Arriaga and Brandon Lee Fitzpatrick, entered the cemetery that day intending to steal a vehicle; they shifted attention to Hatfield’s black GMC Denali after first following another car into the lot.

Court records and statements say Arriaga fired a small semiautomatic handgun, striking Hatfield in the back. Despite his wounds, Hatfield made it about 50 to 60 yards toward the Tug Fork River before collapsing and dying; his body was found the next morning, May 23. Evidence recovered nearby included a bloodied hooded shirt, a knit cap, a cellphone, a semiautomatic handgun and a spent bullet. Arriaga and Fitzpatrick were later identified, arrested and prosecuted; a third man, Ricky Dean Peterson, was charged as an accessory after the fact.