On the evening of June 26, 2026, a prearranged confrontation in the parking lot of Brushfork Elementary School in Bluefield, West Virginia, ended with 24-year-old Dawlton D. Blankenship being fatally shot in the head. Blankenship and his companions, including his brother, had arranged to meet three other men to settle a dispute. One member of the opposing party arrived armed, and when Blankenship’s group tried to flee in a pickup truck multiple shots were fired; the truck later showed three bullet holes while parked at the emergency room.

Blankenship was taken first to the Bluefield Emergency Department of WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital and then transferred to Roanoke Memorial Hospital in Virginia, where he died several hours later. The West Virginia State Police arrested three men from Bluefield: Terrance Shade Thomas, 24, accused as the shooter and charged with second-degree murder, conspiracy and three counts of attempted murder; his father, Terrance C. Thomas, 44, charged with second-degree murder and conspiracy; and 35-year-old Bradley Billings, charged with conspiracy. Court documents say Shade Thomas told police he and the others had planned to fight, that he retrieved a gun after seeing the other group arm themselves with brass knuckles and hammers, and that he fired after alleging the truck tried to run over his father.

No convictions or sentences have been reported. Did anyone in the Bluefield area witness the confrontation or have information about the events leading up to that night?