Coffman

Coffman

WESTON — An Upshur County Sheriff’s deputy who was shot during an incident involving a gunman on Interstate 79 Thursday morning is expected to make a full recovery, officials said.

Chief Deputy Mike Coffman was shot in the thigh after being one of the first to respond to the scene, where a man used his vehicle to block both northbound lanes of his traffic and began shooting with a rifle and a pistol, Upshur County Sheriff Virgil Miller told media outlets.

Coffman was shot as he attempted to stop traffic on the highway, Miller said.

The shooter, who was witnessed taking shots randomly with a scoped rifle, was reportedly shot dead by law enforcement at the scene, approximately 15 minutes after Coffman was shot, Miller told reporters.

The suspect’s name has not yet been released. Coffman was the only person shot in the incident, Miller said.

Randolph County Sheriff Rob Elbon told The Inter-Mountain that Coffman underwent surgery at Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital.

“Sheriff Miller contacted me and told me that Mike was out of surgery and in recovery,” Elbon said. “He said it looked like that there was no permanent damage to where he was going to have any issues. From what I understand it looks like he will have a full recovery.”

Elbon said he and Coffman have been friends for many years, dating back to when they attended magistrate school together.

“We both got elected as magistrates and spent some time doing that,” he said. “Then when I was elected sheriff he took the chief deputy spot over there (Upshur County). But we’ve been buddies for years.”

Multiple law enforcement agencies responded to the incident that shut down all lanes of traffic on both sides of I-79 for some time Thursday. At one point, Elbon said he had deputies from the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office en route to the scene.

“We were sending deputies to Weston and activating our S.W.A.T guys when we were told the suspect was down,” Elbon said. “I called the scene and asked if they still needed us and they told us that they thought they were good. I told them if they needed us, to call us back, and turned my guys around.”

Police are investigating the incident, that began at approximately 10:40 a.m. when the director of Upshur County Emergency Management called in to officials after witnessing the man firing randomly on I-79, according to reports.

Coffman served 12 years as an Upshur County magistrate before being appointed the Upshur Sheriff’s Department’s chief deputy in 2021.

He previously served as a deputy sheriff in Lewis County from 1997 to 2005. He was elected as a magistrate four times.