Police say a 19-year-old woman told dispatchers she shot a 28-year-old friend after accusing him of trying to grope her.

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — A night that began with drinks at a bar ended just after midnight Feb. 28 with a man dead on a couch, a woman in handcuffs a mile away, and police piecing together sharply different accounts of what happened inside a house on 40th Street.

Claudia Torres, 19, of Clarksburg, is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Austin Lamb, 28. Investigators say the case moved quickly from an emergency response to a homicide arrest because Torres called 911 herself, witnesses described the hours before the shooting, and officers found her within minutes. The immediate stakes are both legal and factual: prosecutors must prove an intentional killing, while the defense is likely to focus on Torres’ claim that Lamb tried to touch her inappropriately shortly before she opened fire.

According to police and court records summarized by local news outlets, Torres, Lamb and two other people spent part of the evening of Feb. 27 at a bar in Parkersburg. At some point, witnesses said, a fight broke out there. On the drive back, the witnesses told investigators, Torres and Lamb argued again and had to be separated. Once the group reached the home in the 1000 block of 40th Street, Lamb went inside while Torres stayed outside briefly, according to the complaint. Police were dispatched to the address at about 12:10 a.m. Saturday. When officers entered, they found Lamb on a couch with multiple gunshot wounds. Torres, meanwhile, called 911 and said, “This guy who I thought was my friend tried to grope me … so I shot him three times,” according to the complaint described in local reports.

The witness statements and Torres’ own words form the backbone of the early case record. One witness told investigators he was inside the house when Torres came in and fired multiple shots at Lamb. Another account described Torres leaving the scene after the gunfire. Witnesses also told police she shouted, “That’s what you get for messing with me,” as she ran, a detail repeated in later reporting. Police said officers and emergency crews tried life-saving measures, but Lamb died at the scene. The criminal complaint said officers were told Torres left in a purple Dodge Ram, and police and Wood County sheriff’s deputies detained her at about 12:19 a.m., roughly one mile from the house. She also made unsolicited statements to officers during transport, according to reports citing court documents. What remains unclear from public reporting is whether investigators recovered surveillance footage from the home, nearby property, or the route away from the scene, and whether any forensic testing has changed the early witness accounts.

The case drew attention because it pairs a direct claim of unwanted sexual touching with a witness narrative that suggests a pause between the argument and the shooting. That timing matters. Public accounts say Lamb had already gone inside and was seated on a couch when he was shot. Reports citing witnesses also say Torres got something from the vehicle before re-entering the home. Those details could become important if the case moves beyond a preliminary hearing and into a fuller court fight over intent, self-defense, or whether Torres reasonably believed she was in danger. So far, police have publicly framed the case as a homicide investigation rather than a self-defense shooting. The public record also shows how quickly early narratives can form: a 911 statement may explain a motive, but it does not settle what happened in the seconds before the gunfire or whether any physical evidence supports that account.

By the next business week, the case had shifted from the street to the courtroom. Local radio outlet WAJR reported Torres was held without bond. MetroNews reported she was expected back in court March 10 for a preliminary hearing. A first-degree murder charge in West Virginia can carry severe penalties if the case leads to indictment and conviction, but the magistrate stage is narrower. Prosecutors would be required to show probable cause, not prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If the case were bound over to circuit court, more records could emerge through indictment papers, motions, and later hearings. Those steps would likely sharpen the central disputes: whether the shooting was deliberate, whether Torres armed herself after the confrontation had cooled, and what the witness accounts and any physical evidence show about Lamb’s position and movements when he was shot.

Even in its earliest public form, the case carries the details that often shape how a community understands a killing. The address was an ordinary residential block. The response was fast. The suspect was found within minutes. The victim and the accused were not strangers, according to reports; Torres described Lamb on the 911 call as someone she had thought was her friend. That detail gives the case a different weight than a random shooting. It places the fatal turn inside a personal relationship, after a shared night out, and inside a home where at least one other person was present. Parkersburg Police Chief Matthew Board said in an early release, as quoted by local outlets, that additional information would be released when appropriate. Since then, the public story has remained spare, leaving many of the most important questions for court.

As of the latest public reports, Torres remained charged with first-degree murder in Lamb’s death, and the next major milestone was the preliminary-hearing stage that local outlets said had been set for March 10.

Author note: Last updated April 2, 2026.