WILLIAMSON, WV (WOWK) – Williamson residents tell 13 News the legacy that fallen West Virginia State Police Trooper Sgt. Cory Maynard has left behind is large and impactful.

“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.

Sgt. Maynard responded to a shooting on Beech Creek Road near Matewan in Mingo County on Friday afternoon. He was shot and killed, as well as another man. The suspect, 29-year-old Timothy Kennedy, was arrested after an hours-long manhunt.

“We would sit and talk about ways to make this area better for the kids, and so that’s what hurts me the most is to know we lost somebody who cared so much,” Mounts said.

“Cory was one of the good ones. He cared about the community, cared about the kids, cared about the people,” Mounts said.

As the community mourns a fallen hero, one way a few local restaurants are honoring him is by reserving a seat at the bar and placing a Guinness beer on the counter, Sgt. Cory Maynard’s drink of choice.

He also used to play jazz and old country music at this restaurant.

“We kind of started getting Guinness because Cory liked Guinness,” Garrett Gregory II said. Gregory was one of Maynard’s friends and often served him Guinness at Williamson’s Starters Grill.

Maynard was known as a funny and intelligent man that wanted to pour his time into making his community a better place.

“He’d give you the shirt off his back. He was very involved. He was very selfless, very professional,” Gregory said.

Maynard volunteered at the Williamson Public Library to read to young children, and he taught his own children about being responsible.

“He would come in and just volunteer. They would just call him, and he would stop by. Jennifer had run into him last week, the librarian, and she said, ‘Are you going to help us this summer?’ and he said ‘Sure, of course.’ He was going to come on Monday,” Williamson Public Library volunteer Dee Kapourales said.

Even though Maynard served his community in many ways, people throughout his hometown say the way he chose to live each day is what will stick with them forever.