The parents had filed a complaint with the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office, a warrant was issued for 25-year-old Cyle Fabrizio, and deputies searched for him the day before he murdered David and Monica Will in their home along Middle Grave Creek Road in Moundsville.
Fabrizio, an individual known to law enforcement for fighting and violent tendencies, was shot once in the head and killed by an unnamed Marshall County deputy early Thursday morning after the assailant had a 16-year-old female as his hostage while holding one of two of his guns to her head. Deputies discovered one firearm near his body, and the other was still in his right hand.
Marshall County Sheriff Mike Dougherty was unable to reveal the manufacturer and caliber of the firearms during a Friday afternoon interview on The River Network’s “Novotney Now” radio program, but he released several new details during the on-air conversation.
“The family did make a complaint late last week about basically (Fabrizio) acting strangely,” Dougherty revealed. “After they called in, they were given their options on different things that could happen, and then they ended up making a formal complaint about harassment and stalking.
“A warrant for his arrest was issued the afternoon prior to this happening,” the sheriff reported. “When our deputies attempted to located him, he could not be found. Several hours later, the tragedy took place.”
The call to 911 was made just before 2 a.m. Thursday morning, and two deputies responded to the home that is located across the street from the Marshall County Schools building. Deputy-Sergeant Bear Mobley explained the body cam footage he reviewed soon after the tragedy took place.
“When the deputy approaches the back door, he shined his light out and he saw (Fabrizio) and he can see that the assailant has a gun and is holding the female. The deputy immediately took cover on the other side of the door and, at that time, there were words exchanged between both of them,” he described. “On the recording, the assailant is telling him to just leave, to get out of here. ‘I’m not gonna hurt her. I’m not gonna do anything, but you need to leave.’
“But then (Fabrizio) fires a round at the deputy seconds later,” explained Sgt. Mobley. “That deputy told the other that reported to go get a rifle because there’s no need to have a pistol, and he also called for more support. While additional officers were en route, the deputy took the shot that ended the confrontation.
“Those guys followed their training to a ‘T’, and it’s why the situation ended the way it did.”
A single .223 round was discharged by the deputy, a 6-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office.
“He’s doing as well as can be expected. He is working through the situation, obviously,” Dougherty reported. “He did his job, and he does know that, and we have reinforced that. He’s obviously a very well-tuned individual. He’s been trained extremely well and is one of my SRT members.
“I can’t stress enough that he did exactly what he was trained to do,” the sheriff reiterated. “And he absolutely saved a life, in my opinion.”
A Goodbye by Hand
The assailant’s father called the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office Friday because he possessed a handwritten letter he knew investigators needed to see.
“So, (Thursday) afternoon we were contacted by Mr. Fabrizio’s father, and a detective and I went to that residence and obtained a letter written by (Fabrizio),” Mobley reported. “I can’t speak to everything that it says, but it is as much of a suicide letter as you’re going to have in a case like this. After reading it, I don’t think that he intended on making it out of the situation because of the, the words in the letter.
“It just said goodbye, pretty much. It had some other details in it. He was leaving certain items to people, and, at the end, he just says, ‘Goodbye. I don’t want a funeral.’ Things of that nature,” he explained. “So again, it’s as much as a suicide letter as you’re going to have in a case like this.”
Fabrizio was known to the Will family even before filing the harassment complaint with law enforcement.
“He would show up at the residence,” Mobley said. “They had had previous contact with him due to church. We understand the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Will, were trying to help him originally through their church that they had a lot to do with, and that’s pretty much where that obsession with the daughter developed.
“So, he knew enough about them, how to get in contact with them, and it just got to the point where they could tell something was off,” he said. “As of right now, there are no indications that she was communicating with him whatsoever. After talking to family members and talking to her, there’s nothing indicating that she ever wanted anything to do with him.
“Was he obsessed? I believe so, yes.”
Officer-Involved Shooting
It might not be rare for a law enforcement officer in the Upper Ohio Valley to draw their service weapon during an on-duty confrontation, but very, very rarely have they been forced to fire.
Early Friday morning, though, a life needed to be saved.
“I truly believe, based on what we’ve been finding out, what we’ve uncovered, that his intention was to basically kidnap her, assault her, and probably take her life and then take his own,” Mobley said. “I can’t think of anything else that he had in his mind based on what we’ve discovered so far. He doesn’t outline any plans of anything in his letter, but it was definitely a goodbye.
“For the most part, his intentions are made clear,” he said. “Thankfully, our deputy was able to end the situation when he did.”
It was a “good shoot,” according to Sheriff Dougherty.
“There’s a storage shed or a small garage in the back of that property and our deputy was able to use it for cover,” Dougherty said. “Once he got the proper sight acquisition and pulled the trigger, he ended the situation.
“When the shot was taken, (Fabrizio) was holding onto the female hostage,” he detailed. “Once hit, the assailant fell straight to the ground and the female ran out to the front of the house. Her 14-year-old brother had already managed to get out of the house and the neighbors were keeping him safe.”
The two responding deputies will be identified in the near future, according to the sheriff.
“We will be naming him in the future, but we do have to wait right now because the West Virginia State Police is doing the investigation of the officer-involved shooting,” Dougherty explained. “Once they complete their investigation and recognize that it was a good shoot, it goes to our prosecutor, and then after that, once everything is cleared, which I know it’s going to be, then we’ll be able to release his name.
“He knows he did his duty,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of appreciation for him online and with the public, so that tells me people realize he did his job and he saved a life.”
