MINGO COUNTY, WV (WOWK) — The funeral for Sgt. Cory Maynard, the West Virginia State Police Trooper killed in the line of duty Friday, was at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, according to an obituary page.
Sgt. Maynard, 37, was killed in an ambush in the Beech Creek Road area on Friday, June 2, according to the West Virginia State Police (WVSP). Timothy Kennedy, 29, of Matewan, is the man accused of killing Maynard and injuring one other person.
Visitation for Sgt. Maynard will take place at Mingo Central High School from noon to 3 p.m. His funeral will take place at 3 p.m. with Maj. Jim Mitchell officiating, according to the obituary page.
The page said the pallbearers include Damien Hart, Shepherd University Police Department, Tyler Hannon, WVSP, Jim Hannon, Retired Ohio State Highway Patrol, Jonathan Ziegler, WVSP, Thomas Boggs, WVSP, and Kyle Johnson, WVSP.
The procession route will start at Mingo Central High School. It will then go to King Coal Highway, onto Route 65, Route 52 and US-119N to Chapmanville, West Virginia, the page said.
Sgt. Maynard is being remembered as a hero by friends, agencies and West Virginia officials. One man – Justin Marcum – told Nexstar’s WOWK that he had talked to Sgt. Maynard the morning before his death.
“He never met a stranger. If it was a homeless person, if it was an attorney if it was whomever, a school teacher, he also took time to say hi to people,” Marcum said. “His presence in the community as a law enforcement officer and just as a man, it’s going to be dearly missed.”
Patricia Bennett is still trying to wrap her mind around the death of her older brother. “I love every memory I have with him, the good and the bad,” Patricia said Monday afternoon.
His uncle, David Maynard, said after seeing how big of an impact their loved one had both on and off duty, it offers some comfort. “Infectious enthusiasm. If you saw him in a room and he was talking to people, you’d look at all those people and they’d all be smiling,” David Maynard told 13 News Sunday afternoon.
“We’ve really lost a pillar in our community. He was so young, and I feel like he had so much more to give us,” one of Maynard’s friends Shirley Mounts said.
The West Virginia State Police said Sgt. Maynard, 37, was with the WVSP since Oct. 9, 2007. He was a tissue donor. He was married and had two children, 13 and 9, and was from Pike County, Kentucky.
According to the WVSP in 2015, Sgt. Maynard was awarded the Lifesaving Award for saving a pursuit suspect’s life in January 2014. The pursuit suspect stabbed himself in the neck after he crashed his vehicle. Maynard applied bandages and pressure to save the man’s life.
