Man shot dead at Jefferson County, W.Va., Elks Club

November 14, 1997

By CLYDE FORD

Staff Writer, Charles Town

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - A Front Royal, Va., man was shot to death early Friday as he sat in the passenger seat of a car leaving the Elks Club parking lot off U.S. 340 South, West Virginia State Police said.

Kim Flynn, 32, was pronounced dead at Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Ranson, W.Va., hospital spokeswoman Teresa McCabe said.

Flynn's death was the first slaying in Jefferson County in 1997.

"At this point, we don't have a motive yet," said Sgt. S.E. Paugh of the West Virginia State Police.

No arrests had been made as of Friday night.

Several Jefferson County residents said the club holds College Night on Thursdays, a non-alcoholic evening catering to college students.

It was unknown how many people were still in the club early Friday when the shooting occurred.

Flynn had been inside the Elks Club John Brown Lodge 841 and was leaving when an argument started, police said.

Flynn and his unidentified friends got into a rented 1997 Pontiac Grand Am, police said.

As the car was leaving the parking lot, a gunshot was fired through the passenger's side window, striking Flynn in the chest, police said.

Two other people in the car, the driver and a passenger in the back seat, were not injured, police said.

Trooper C.C. Wathen, the lead investigator in the case, would not say how many shots were fired, saying he wanted to make sure statements from witnesses are based on what they had seen and heard and not on what they read in the newspaper.

Police declined to release any information about a possible suspect and witnesses, contacted at home Friday, refused to discuss the incident.

After Flynn was shot, the driver took him to Jefferson Memorial.

Flynn arrived at the hospital's emergency room at 2:21 a.m., McCabe said. He was pronounced dead at 2:24 a.m.

Investigators spent Friday questioning witnesses to the shooting.

The Elks Club is a two-story building made of concrete blocks painted white. No one was at the building Friday afternoon or Friday evening.

There is a gravel parking lot on the side and in front of the building.

A sign next to the front door describes the dress code as barring tank tops and T-shirts and requiring hats to be taken off. Beneath the dress code are the words "No Drugs" in large letters.

Over the years, the building has housed a variety of nightclubs under the names Mr. G's and the Blue Lantern.

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