{Charleston, West Virginia}...South Charleston Police Chief Brad Rinehart says his officers were left with few options when they opened fire and fatally shot 40 year old Tommy Ransbottom II from Cross Lanes around 1:00 A.M. Tuesday morning in a vacant church parking lot on Village Drive. The shooting followed a night of searching for Ransbottom, who had previously indicated he was suicidal and deeply disturbed. Police were on high alert after Ransbottom was reportedly firing shots in the Cross Lanes neighborhood of Lake Cheweva earlier in the night. Rinehart says a deputy had spoken with Ransbottom by telephone from the home of a family member earlier in the evening, and he had said before the night was over he was going to force a policeman to shoot him. When police caught up with him, they say he wouldn't obey any commands or anything, but, instead, got out of his car, threw something at the cruiser then got back in, and, when he got out the second time, he had a pistol and pointed it at two of the policemen. Two of the officers who surrounded the suspect's car fired the shots which left him fatally wounded. He died soon afterward at Thomas Memorial Hospital in South Charleston. The Kanawha County Sheriff's Department is handling the investigation of the shooting, and both officers have been placed on administrative leave.
