Haley Swaino
One person was hospitalized after a shooting in downtown Columbia early Saturday morning.
According to a Facebook post from the Columbia Police Department, officers were called around 2:30 a.m. to Eighth and Walnut Streets for reports of shots fired. One victim was found and taken to the hospital.
CPD Lieutenant Anthony Bowne said an officer heard shots fired and called it in. He wasn’t able to confirm whether the victim had been shot or what their condition was.
An ABC 17 News reporter arrived on scene around 3 a.m. and saw about 16 Columbia police cruisers blocking off the area from Eighth Street to Ninth Street.
The reporter also noticed that the police expanded the perimeter of the scene. The first expansion was around 3:30 a.m. near Walnut and Eighth Streets to block off the columns at the Boone County Courthouse. The perimeter was expanded on the other side as well, to include the intersection of Walnut and Ninth Streets. The intersection was reopened around 5:30 a.m.
Columbia Mayor Barbara Buffaloe said she was frustrated with the incident in a Facebook post.
“I am beyond frustrated with the reports of senseless gun violence in the early hours of Saturday morning that resulted in a victim being sent to the hospital,” Buffaloe wrote.
She also said she’s keeping up on updates from city leadership.
At the time of Buffaloe’s post, CPD had been investigating the incident for about five and a half hours.
University of Missouri System President Mun Choi told ABC 17 News that the victim wasn’t an MU student. Choi has been asking the city to crack down on crime since a deadly downtown shooting in 2025.
“I spoke with CPD this morning and learned that the victim is not affiliated with Mizzou. The continuing violence in that part of downtown is of great concern and that’s the reason that I advised students, faculty and staff to avoid that area,” Choi wrote in an email.
Choi has called Walnut Street between Eighth and Tenth Streets the “danger zone.” At the beginning of the fall semester, Choi told students to avoid that area of town late at night.
It has become a hot spot for crime. In early August, there was a shots-fired call–no one was hurt, but one person was arrested. In late July, there was a large street brawl in that area, resulting in several people being arrested.
One longtime Columbia resident, Miranda Sutphin, said that due to all the incidences that happen in Downtown Columbia, she is nervous about being there.
“I do get nervous, you never know what other people’s agendas are and you never know what other people are thinking, what other conflicts are out here, so everybody does think what’s going to happen,” Sutphin said. “‘Am I going to be caught in a cross line fire?’ ‘Am I going to be in the middle of something and I don’t even know it?’ so there’s a lot of people who don’t want to come downtown because we’re nervous about everything that keeps happening.”
With the increase in police enforcement during Halloween weekend, Sutphin said that she is wondering how the shooting from Saturday morning could have happened.
“With police presence, you would think it would deter crime, but those are the ones who think that they’re slick and they’re going to come out,” Sutphin said. “We don’t have answers yet, and that’s what we’re wondering.”
Sutphin said she wants downtown Columbia to go back to how it used to be, and for residents to stop blaming individuals and work together as a community.
“We need to find community. We need to get back to how the old days used to be, where we help each other,” Sutphin said.
All crime scene tape came down around 8:45 a.m.
Check back for updates.
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