Crime

Former BMX Racer Who Owned Bike Shop Shoots Employee Dead Before Turning Gun on Himself

James Kincheloe, 40, was found dead on Feb. 16 at Don Johle’s Bike World

Published on February 23, 2023 03:14PM EST

A former BMX racer who owned a bike shop fatally shot his employee before turning the gun on himself, police say.

The employee, James Kincheloe, 40, was found dead around 9 a.m. on Feb. 16 in the break room at Don Johle's Bike World.

Garland, Texas, police believe shop owner and former BMX racer Wesley Don-Johle, 58, fatally shot the store employee and father of two before killing himself.

Lt. Richard Maldonado with the Garland Police Department tells PEOPLE that video surveillance from the business and surrounding businesses showed both men in the store the day before, but only Don-Johle left at the end of the day.

"Don and the victim were in the store," he says. "They see Don leaving in the evening but never see the victim leave."

Maldonado says members of the Garland SWAT unit served a felony warrant at Don-Johle's Rowlett home and discovered him dead in the kitchen from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Wesley Don Johle — Wesley Don-Johle. Facebook

Maldonado says investigators are trying to figure out a motive.

"It is unclear what the motive is. Evidently there was some discord between James and Don," he says. "Some speculated it might have been because of financial woes but it has not been confirmed on our end. They are still trying to come up to a motive to bring some conclusion to this. They are still working on that."

"Whatever happened, he was trying to stop [the attack]," Kincheloe's wife Daisy McKee told WFAA, adding that a coworker had told her Kincheloe appeared like he was trying to wrestle away the gun when he was shot.

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According to WFAA, Don-Johle was a popular BMX rider who was an inductee in the Texas BMX Hall of Fame.

McKee told the Dallas Observer that Kincheloe was an avid BMX bike rider who rode his bike to work.

"He [Kincheloe] never even bothered learning to drive," she said. "He was perfectly content never getting behind the wheel so long as he could still sit upright on a bike and pedal."

The father of two "loved to ride with the kids in the pull-behind trailer," she said, the Observer reported. "We even used it to take the older boy to and from school on James' day off. The most special to me was the effort he put into making it an activity I can safely enjoy. He put a lot of thought and effort into making sure I could ride with him when I wanted to."

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help pay for funeral expenses.