Authorities have released the name of the man shot and killed by police in Berkeley County this week.
Berkeley County sheriff's deputies shot and killed 62-year-old Larry Warren Kipps after he shot at them Monday night.
Berkeley Sheriff Curtis Keller said Kipps lived in a mobile home situated next to a home on Leonard Drive in Gerrardstown.
Deputies and State Police troopers responded to the property at about 7:20 p.m. Monday after the homeowners called about a possible suicide attempt by Kipps.
Kipps was intoxicated, and he fired a gun at the homeowners before deputies arrived, Keller said.
Keller traveled to the home after authorities learned Kipps might be barricaded inside, and that he had vowed to kill himself or anyone who tried to intervene.
"I had beat on the trailer and everything else," Keller said. "We were trying every way we could to make contact with him, and we weren't getting any reaction."
At first, Keller planned to wait to see if Kipps would leave the mobile home. However, he said, the homeowners were unsure if Kipps had already injured or killed himself.
Deputies threw tear gas into the mobile home to prevent Kipps from hurting himself of others. Keller said he decided to use the gas in hopes of avoiding deadlier options.
"It could do several things: it couldn't affect him at all, it could agitate him and make him worse or it could get him to the point where he would come out so we could, you know, effectively get him under control. And, you know, you've got to weigh your options, but we didn't have any other choice at that point in time," Keller said.
Authorities soon realized Keller was not in the trailer. At about 9 p.m., a deputy noticed Kipps walking toward the mobile home from a nearby barn, a .357 revolver in hand, Keller said.
He said deputies yelled at Kipps and ordered him to drop the gun. Kipps then stopped about 50 yards from the deputies, raised the gun and fired one shot.
"I could hear it whistle when it went by," Keller said. "I knew the round went over my head - I knew that. Believe me I knew that."
Deputies later found 10 loaded guns in the trailer, including three next to the door, he said.
Keller said his agency does not receive Crisis Intervention Team training, a program that teaches law enforcement to help people in the middle of a mental crisis. The program started in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1988 after police shot and killed a mentally ill man who wielded a knife.
Along with Arkansas and Alabama, West Virginia is one of the only states where no police agencies take part in the program. In 2014, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that West Virginia had one of the highest rates of severe mental illness in the country.
The Washington Post analyzed 124 killings that involved mental illness. Most of the deceased were men, more than half of them white, and nine in 10 had a weapon.
In most cases, the report said, police responded to a call from concerned neighbors or relatives, who reported erratic behavior rather than a crime.
The report said authorities often receive training that is counterproductive, and erratic behavior is often met with shouts and pointed guns. Experts said authorities should try to focus on de-escalation instead of an immediate arrest.
When asked about such tactics, Keller said his deputies had no time to consider other options.
"He would not listen to whatever was being said. No intervention in the world would have stopped that man, and if you would have tried to do that he would have shot you," Keller said.
He said two deputies are on paid administrative leave as an internal review of the shooting is completed. The office is expected to release more information Monday afternoon.
Keller also said he plans to establish intervention training at the agency, though he is not sure when.
"As soon as I took office I was going to try to get that, but by golly with everything going on it's just been a hassle for me to get things settled down in here," Keller said. "But that is going to happen. It's definitely going to happen."
Reach Giuseppe Sabella at giuseppe.sabella@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @Gsabella on Twitter.