Month: August 2025

Haley Swaino

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The University of Missouri sent out its first MU Alert to students since move-in began for the 2025-26 school year on Monday night.

The alert said officers were responding to a shots-fired call in the 900 block of South Providence Road. The incident ended up being a vehicle backfiring on MU’s Columbia campus, according to previous reporting.

Some MU students began moving onto campus on Saturday, with a majority expected to move in on Wednesday and Thursday, according to information on the university’s website.

First-year student Kylin Woodruff moved in Saturday and said she was alone in her dorm when she got the MU Alert on Monday.

“I was in my dorm, just eating dinner and everything, and I just got a text on my phone that there were gunshots apparently reported,” Woodruff said.

Woodruff had just moved four hours away from home and said her roommate had not moved in yet when she saw the ‘shots-fired’ message come across her phone.

“Honestly, it kind of scared me,” Woodruff said. “Lately these past couple days, I’ve been hearing cop sirens or ambulance sirens practically daily. So I kind of figured something was going on.”

MU Alerts are sent out during incidents that have the potential to impact the entire campus, according to the information on the university’s website. Active threats that prompt the university to send an alert range from weather-related emergencies to possible criminal activity.

The university defines a threat to campus as “any events, man-made or natural, that threaten the safety and security of our students, faculty and staff.”

After each message is sent, the university says it reviews its policies and procedures to decide if any changes should be made in handling that type of situation in the future.

Woodruff said getting that MU Alert on Monday was scary, but made her feel protected and informed. She said she signed up for the alerts to have piece of mind on campus.

“I’m glad they have the alert system because who knows, someone could have been out there and like heading towards that direction and that could probably could have really saved somebody,” Woodruff said.

In the case of an emergency, the university alert tool will recommend an action to take. MU says not to contact MUPD, rather follow directions given in the alert, as dispatchers need to be available to respond to the unfolding emergency.

Follow-up MU Alerts will continue to be sent out as soon as new information becomes available. An “All Clear” message will be sent once campus is back to operating under normal conditions.

MU leaders say that because studies show over-notification causes people to ignore warning messages, they restrict campus-wide alerts to incidents that pose an immediate threat to campus.

The MU Alert system is tested several times each year, according to the university’s online emergency information center. The university says it often does drills to assess existing plans and policies, while also testing the emergency alert system. Every semester, all members of the campus community participate in these drills.

The current system is not able to send alerts to separate individuals or groups based on phone numbers of locations, though MU says it continues to investigate this possibility.

To sign-up to receive MU Alerts, students can register through their myZou accounts. Faculty and staff can register through their myHR accounts. Parents, community members and others who do not have an account with the university can sign up for alerts in two ways.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A man who has been trespassed from more than 25 businesses in downtown Columbia has been charged with a felony.

Michael Paddock, 49, of Columbia, was charged on Monday with first-degree burglary and a pair of misdemeanors: Stealing and disturbing the peace. He is being held at the Boone County Jail on a $15,000 bond. A hearing was held on Tuesday afternoon.

The probable cause statement says Shakespeare’s Pizza had been having regular issues this month with Paddock stealing food and drinks and that he had known to become violent. By Aug. 16, restaurant staff had Paddock removed about six-to-seven times this month, the statement says.

The same day, Paddock allegedly followed a manager at the business to his apartment and threatened to stab him, court documents say. The victim recorded Paddock following him home and Paddock would stop walking if the victim stopped walking, court documents say.

Paddock allegedly went back to Shakespeare’s the next day, reached over the bar and stole a cup after he was told he was not allowed in the building, another employee allegedly told police. Police arrested Paddock at Flat Branch Park later that day, where he denied being banned from the business, court documents say.

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Olivia Hayes

EDITOR’S NOTE: The story has been updated to correct information about the Puri Group’s purchase of the property.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Nearly a decade after its closure, the Truman Hotel is coming down.

Puri Group Enterprises, the building’s owner, said Tuesday that criticism from the community over the deteriorating building was the motivation behind the move.

“We get continuous harassment from people around the city that the Truman building is old, it is decrepit, it needs to be torn down. Just harassment continuously,” said Raman Puri, president of Puri Group Enterprises.

Jefferson City Mayor Ron Fitzwater describes the old hotel as a once “vibrant facility.”

“There were a lot of events done in that facility. There was a restaurant called Bingham’s, there was a kind of music area in the hotel that was the hot spot for the Capitol and people at the Capitol,” Fitzwater said.

Plans were in place to redevelop the building. The Puri Group purchased the hotel from Jeftel, Inc., according to a group spokesperson.

“We tore down half of the old Truman Hotel and developed a new hotel, and the remaining buildings there were closed down at that time because we were redeveloping a new product,” Puri said regarding his group’s original plans with the building.

However, the hotel never reopened, becoming vacant in 2015 and being declared dangerous in 2020.

“Unfortunately, the agreement that was signed didn’t have any termination dates saying ‘this will be built by a certain date,'” Fitzwater said.

Fitzwater said he and city staff found out about the building demolition on Monday, with the rest of the Jefferson City community.

“On Saturday, one of our staff saw the equipment parked behind the building getting ready for it, so that kind of got the buzz going over the weekend, and then yesterday the excitement really started,” Fitzwater said.

He feels like the possibilities for what the Puri Group could do with the land, following demolition, are endless.

“There’s 100-plus associations based in this community, plus all of state government and other organizations in town. So we know that it’ll be utilized,” Fitzwater said.

Puri said the demolition is privately funded and will cost $1.2 million. He said his group had to take out loans to pay for it.

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