Suspect arrested in death of coal exec Bennett Hatfield

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A man has been arrested in the death of a former coal company executive found shot at a West Virginia cemetery where his wife is buried, a sheriff said today.

Mingo County Sheriff James Smith said Anthony R. Arriaga, 20, is being held on a homicide warrant in Allen County, Ohio. Smith said the suspect is being held in Monday's shooting of Bennett K. Hatfield, 59.

Hatfield resigned in 2015 as president and CEO of Patriot Coal, a month before the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time. He was International Coal Group's CEO when a 2006 explosion at the Sago Mine in northern West Virginia killed 12 miners.

Hatfield was fatally shot at Mountain View Memory Gardens, a cemetery in southern West Virginia's Mingo County. Detectives were interviewing Arriaga and will seek his extradition to West Virginia, Smith said.

The sheriff didn't immediately release a motive and said he didn't know Arriaga's hometown.