Missouri authorities shoot and kill 1 after disturbance call in Pettis County
Law enforcement officials in west-central Missouri were investigating a police shooting that left one person dead Tuesday night, according to a news release from the highway patrol.
The man shot and killed was identified as Jay P. Messer, 58, of LaMonte, Missouri, according to the Pettis County Sheriff’s Office.
The shooting happened after 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in rural Pettis County, and involved deputies from the sheriff’s office and a trooper from the Missouri Highway Patrol.
In a statement, the highway patrol said it was assisting the sheriff’s office with a call for a verbal domestic disturbance at a home near La Monte at the time of the incident.
After contacting the caller at a nearby residence, four deputies and a trooper went to the home where the disturbance was coming from, according to a release from the sheriff’s office Wednesday.
An allegedly intoxicated Messer, armed with a shotgun, met officers who ordered him to put down the weapon. Messer, however, fired at the officers, who returned fire, striking the man, according to the news release.
Officers attempted to provide first aid until an ambulance crew arrived, but Messer died at the scene. No officers were injured in the shooting.
“The officers, fearing for their safety, fired their weapons, striking the suspect,” the highway patrol said in its statement.
Investigators from the highway patrol’s drug and crime control division, the sheriff’s office, and the Pettis County Coroner’s Office completed the on-scene investigation overnight.
An autopsy is planned for later this week.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact the Pettis County Sheriff’s Office at 660-827-0052.
This story was originally published November 5, 2019 at 10:57 PM.
