FAYETTEVILLE, WV (LOOTPRESS) – Fayetteville’s former mayor faces two charges after an altercation.
According to the Fayetteville Police Department, James Filmore Akers, 86, was charged with a felony count of wanton endangerment involving a firearm and a misdemeanor charge of shooting across a road or near a building or a crowd. Police responded to a shots fired call on Thursday, May 5th, in the area of Keller Avenue and Davis Street. When police arrived in the area, Lt. Kinzer saw a truck approaching him on Davis Street. Lt. Kinzer made contact with the male driver and asked him if he had heard anything. The driver identified himself as James Martin Akers and said that he and his brother, Alan Akers, had gotten into a fight and it turned heated. At that point, their father, James Akers, tried to break them up but was unsuccessful. Akers then went inside and got a gun, came back outside, and fired it, trying to break them up.
While Lt. Kinzer was talking to James Martin Akers, the other brother, Alan, pulled up and was asked what had happened. Alan Akers told police that the incident shouldn’t have happened because they are adults. He further stated that they shouldn’t have done it in the middle of town and that his dad was old.
The father, James Filmore Akers, arrived on foot and told police that one of his sons said something to the other after helping him load a loan mower. The father said he tried to break them up but couldn’t. He went in, got a gun, came back out, and fired a shot in the air. He said he didn’t want to do it but didn’t know what else to do. Lt. Kinzer told him that she should have called the police. Akers replied that he couldn’t get to his phone and didn’t even know where it was.
The two brothers said they didn’t want to press charges regarding their altercation.
James Filmore Akers was charged with wanton endangerment and shooting within five hundred feet of any dwelling house.
Akers served as Fayetteville’s Mayor for 12 years. He stepped down in June of 2015 after not seeking re-election.
