Warrants issued for suspect in deputy-involved New Year’s Eve shootings

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. — A Putnam County man who allegedly shot at deputies with the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department on New Year’s Eve started out 2020 in the hospital after being shot in return fire.

That suspect, identified as Michael Vincent Davis, 49, of Poca, was named in a warrant that included two counts of attempted murder and two counts of wanton endangerment.

On Tuesday night, Sheriff Mike Rutherford said deputies responded to a subdivision in Cross Lanes, West Gate located on Dawn Street, after a report of a suspicious person who may have pointed a gun at another person.

Davis first spoke with deputies before walking away and then shooting at the deputies who tried to approach him again, according to information from Rutherford.

The alleged weapon, a handgun, was fired multiple times before gunfire from the deputies hit the man and he was detained.

Davis remained hospitalized on Wednesday morning.

“Upon his release from the hospital, he will be arrested on the warrants,” Sheriff Rutherford said in a Wednesday statement.

No one else was hurt.

Early Wednesday morning, Dawn Street remained closed as the investigation continued at the crime scene.