| Nearly six weeks after a gunman was shot at the WV State Police barracks in Elizabeth by a state trooper, there has been no public information from the State Police regarding the incident.
The shooting happened on August 11.
The Parkersburg News, in a story regarding the incident, said the agency was unresponsive.
A reporter at the weekly Wirt County Journal said earlier the paper is yet to get a response from Sgt. Mike Baylous, the agencies public information officer, regarding the motive or the name of the trooper involved in the shooting.
Generally, the State Police release the name of an officer involved in such incidents in fairly short order, but in this case, they have declined to do so.
Other regional newspapers say the agency has been unresponsive regarding public information inquiries as late as this week, including not returning calls.
Shortly after the incident, Sgt. Baylous said the release of trooper's name is delayed to allow the officer to "decompress."
Joseph Dennis Harrison, 45, of Deavers Fork, hijacked a UPS truck and had its' driver go to the barracks in Elizabeth, where Harrison shot into the building and expelled other rounds before he was shot and killed by a trooper.
Witnesses inside a barber shop told the Charleston Gazette, Harrison aimed at the state trooper and a member of the Wirt County Sheriff's Department.
Neighbors on Deavers Fork, where Harrison lived, told the Herald they did not know him as a troublemaker, indicating he had been in the community less than two years. He was a longtime resident of Garden City, Michigan, where police indicated he did not have arrests.
Employees at an Elizabeth agency said Harrison had been to their office a few days before to conduct business and appeared cordial.
Meanwhile, speculative rumors have floated in the community, including Facebook postings and postings on the State Police's tip line.
Sgt. Baylous did tell one state newspaper that the gossipy speculation in the postings regarding the shooting were not accurate.
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