BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

CEREDO, W.Va. — After a multi-state hunt that spanned the weekend, David Maynard, sought on a murder warrant out of Ironton, Ohio, met his end early Sunday morning in a hostage standoff at a Ceredo gas station.

Maynard, 54, was pronounced dead at 3:06 a.m. after police officers fired shots into the Speedway on C Street.

This followed a situation that began around 12:15 a.m. when Maynard took a cashier and two customers hostage. A negotiator from the West Virginia State Police Special Response Team talked with Maynard for over an hour. The standoff reached its climax when Maynard, holding one hostage after releasing two others, came to the door of the gas station and was shot by police officers.

The pursuit of Maynard began Friday in Ironton when local police, responding to a shooting incident, discovered Maynard’s stepfather dead and his ex-girlfriend tied up.

By Saturday, Maynard had traveled to Kentucky. He reportedly swapped vehicles by kidnapping a woman and abducting her car at a Carter County rest stop. Later, in Louisa, Maynard abandoned his initial victim and vehicle at the Dollar store, proceeding to abduct another woman and her car.

XRock Radio in Ashland reported Maynard was on Routes 645 and 3 in Martin County late afternoon Saturday. By late Saturday night, residents in Kenova spotted him on foot, prompting police to issue a shelter-in-place warning. The hostage situation began soon after.

One local resident, Amie Ousley, reported that her husband believes he encountered Maynard in Martin County. Ousley detailed that while traveling home from work her husband witnessed a woman trying to exit a moving vehicle on Routes 645 and 3.

“He said the door flew open, and he saw a woman…That man threw [the car] back in reverse, then floored it and almost hit him,” Ousley stated, adding that her husband “lost” Maynard at the Dollar Store on New Route 3.

Mr. Ousley’s description of the car matched the one Maynard took in Louisa.

Jonie Spence, an employee at the Dollar General in Debord, said she interacted with Ousley’s husband immediately after his encounter.

“He was telling me about this vehicle in front of him. The lady was trying to open the car door,” Spence shared. “He thought they were arguing… He said the driver pulled his emergency brake in front of a gas tanker truck like he was going to take him and the girl out.”

As of early Sunday, authorities were actively searching for the vehicle taken from Louisa. The status of the woman abducted there remains unknown.

Maynard has a criminal history. He served a 30-year sentence for a 1989 aggravated murder and robbery in Lawrence County, Ohio. He made parole in November 2019.