A West Virginia man accused of killing an unarmed teenager on Monday night has been arrested and may be charged with a hate crime after claiming that he’d removed “another piece of trash off the street,” authorities said.
William Ronald Pulliam, 62, of Charleston, West Virginia, fatally shot 15-year-old James Harvey Means twice with a .380-caliber revolver, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports.
James was shot after the two reportedly exchanged words after bumping into each other on the sidewalk outside a Dollar General. When they encountered each other again, the argument picked up where it left off and the Pullman shot the tween twice.
He died soon after.
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“The way I look at it, that’s another piece of trash off the street,” Pullman said after the shooting, according to a criminal complaint. His actions show his lack of remorse: After the shooting, Pulliam reportedly went to dinner and then went to a female friend’s home.
It also turns out that Pullman was not permitted to have a gun because of a previous domestic violence conviction. He was arraigned on a murder charge Tuesday but local authorities are also waiting to hear back from federal agents on whether this killing was a hate crime.