Eddie Ray Duncan was a 32-year-old patrolman with the Charleston Police Department when he was fatally shot during a disturbance call in the early morning hours of June 26, 1981. Duncan, who had served about three years, and Lieutenant Delbert Junior Roush Sr. were both struck after officers stopped a yellow Cadillac linked to a confrontation at Spyro’s Lounge. Witnesses reported seeing Antoine B. Hickman involved in the dispute; Hickman refused orders to exit the vehicle and, within seconds, gunfire erupted. Duncan was hit under the arm and in the back, with a bullet passing through his heart. Both officers died despite emergency treatment.

Hickman was arrested later that day, confessed orally to the shootings, was tried after a change of venue, convicted by a Mercer County jury of two counts of first-degree murder, and received consecutive life-without-mercy sentences. The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia upheld the convictions on December 12, 1985. Duncan left a wife, a son and two daughters.