McDowell County man arrested after allegedly shooting at CPS workers
Deputies arrested Ricky Dale McMillion of Mohawk after two CPS workers were shot at in McDowell County, putting child welfare worker safety back in focus.
McDowell County sheriff’s deputies arrested Ricky Dale McMillion, 63, of Mohawk, after two Child Protective Services workers were shot at in McDowell County, Chief Deputy Dalton Martin said. The arrest on Tuesday added a fresh safety concern to a job that already carries risk in homes across the county.
McDowell County sits in West Virginia’s Twelfth Judicial Circuit, with Welch as the county seat, and CPS staff regularly work there as part of the state’s county-by-county child welfare system. West Virginia’s Bureau for Social Services says child welfare staff are located in every county, meaning investigators and caseworkers continue to make in-person visits in communities like Mohawk, Welch and other parts of the county when they respond to abuse and neglect allegations.
The shooting allegation also lands against a strained statewide system. A 2024 West Virginia Department of Human Services workforce report said statewide CPS caseloads totaled 6,213 and that the state needed 73 additional positions to reach a standard of 10 cases per worker. The same report said the current allocated CPS worker and senior staff count was 527 as of May 31, 2024.
Those staffing numbers have become part of a broader debate in West Virginia over how CPS workers are protected while carrying out home visits, and whether agencies should change protocols in the field. Questions about accountability, staffing shortages, safety measures and body cameras have already been circulating statewide, and the McDowell County arrest will likely sharpen those concerns for a system that still depends on face-to-face contact to investigate children in danger.
For McDowell County families, that tension runs through everyday child welfare work in a place where Welch remains the center of the court system and county services. The latest arrest shows how quickly a routine investigation can turn into a public safety incident, and why officials are under pressure to decide whether protective services staff need more safeguards before they go door to door again.
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