Crime

Highway patrol issues alert after 2 police officers are shot Sunday in eastern Missouri

The Missouri State Highway Patrol issued a blue alert as they search for Kenneth Lee Simpson, 35, who allegedly shot two police officers Sunday night in Hermann.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol issued a blue alert as they search for Kenneth Lee Simpson, 35, who allegedly shot two police officers Sunday night in Hermann. Missouri State Highway Patrol

Missouri authorities are asking community members to watch for a man suspected of shooting two police officers Sunday night in eastern Missouri.

Kenneth Lee Simpson, 35, allegedly shot two police officers at about 9:19 p.m. Sunday at a Casey’s gas station at 811 Market Street in Hermann, just south of the Missouri River, and between Columbia and St. Louis, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Simpson then fled the scene in an unknown direction, either on foot or in a Jeep, a 2014 black Jeep Wrangler with Missouri license plate RF5A0P, authorities said.

The conditions of the officers were not immediately released.

Authorities believe he could still be armed, according to a blue alert issued by the highway patrol at 9:55 p.m., which signals when an officer has been killed or seriously wounded in the line of duty.

Simpson has red hair, stands at about 5-feet-10-inches tall and weighs about 180 pounds.

Anyone who sees Simpson is asked to call 911 immediately.

No additional information was immediately available.

Anna Spoerre
The Kansas City Star
Anna Spoerre covers breaking news for the Kansas City Star. Before joining The Star in 2020, she covered crime and courts for the Des Moines Register. Spoerre is a graduate of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where she studied journalism.
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