Category: kmiz-local-news

Nia Hinson

FULTON, Mo. (KMIZ)

Roughly six months ago, Dominique Ford died after being shot in his apartment building, but the search for the killer remains ongoing.

According to an October press release from police, Ford was found with life-threatening injuries in the 1400 block of Mokane Road on Oct. 25. Police later said Ford died from his injuries after being rushed to a hospital. He was 27.

The family of Ford gathered Monday night in Veterans Park for a vigil as they continue searching for justice.

“We just want people to talk,” Ford’s mother Tacia Brandt said. “His life was cut way too short. There’s just no words to tell anybody. I can’t say you understand because people just don’t understand… So, I’m hopeful people understand I miss my son.”

Brandt said even months after her son was killed, she and her family are still left with the question: “Why Dominique?”

She said Ford had a normal day, went home and went to bed — where he was killed — something the family believed to be unusual describing him as a quiet man who kept to himself.

After months, the family remains adamant that someone knows what happened, and sending a message to the killer that they will someday be caught.

“My biggest frustration right now is that nobody has come forward to tell us who did this. Somebody knows who did,” Ford’s grandfather Cecil Brandt said. “Maybe they’re afraid because they figure well what happened to Dominique could happen them also but you know what, turn it around. What if it was their family?”

Family members and friends also gathered in December, where his mom and grandfather said they hoped people with information about what happened would come forward. Police said at the time that they were missing “one or two pieces” in the investigation.

Fulton Police Chief Bill Ladwig said at the time that the city also agreed to provide funding for evidence in the case to be sent to Virginia.

Ladwig told ABC 17 News on Monday that the investigation has moved forward some, but they’re still missing a couple key pieces. He said police have not yet received anything back from Virginia, but said those things usually take time.

Ladwig, said the biggest thing the community can do to help at this point is come forward with information.

“We live in this “do not snitch culture” until it happens to them, or their family,” Ladwig said. “We’re not just going to put this thing in a filing cabinet. We’re going to keep working on it until we have the answers.”

Ladwig also told ABC 17 News in December that police had evidence to believe the homicide was premeditated. Ladwig also said there was evidence of a forced entry into Ford’s building.

Police also released surveillance video of someone they called a person of interest.

A previous post from police also shows a photo of a vehicle that is believed to be a Hyundai Tucson between the model years of 2009-24. Police said they believe it is the suspect’s vehicle.

Columbia’s new administrator for the Office of Violence Prevention, D’Markus Thomas-Brown attended the vigil on Monday night in what he said was an attempt to expand the message of crime prevention and healing.

He said he plans to work with the City of Fulton to help spread that message and hold people accountable.

“We see violence travel from Fulton to Columbia, to Jeff City, Moberly and so even though we’re working in Columbia, we know that violence and acts and those who are moving around don’t really take to those bounds either so we appreciate the comradery and the collaboration,” Thomas-Brown said.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Fulton Police Department or Crimestoppers to remain anonynmous.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The criminal investigation into Sedalia councilman who resigned last week may include sexual harassment of a juvenile, according to a Monday email from Pettis County Sheriff Brad Anders.

Former Ward 1 Councilman Tom Oldham stepped down on Thursday after “serious allegations” were brought against him, the City of Sedalia wrote in a Friday social media post. The city did not elaborate on the allegations in the post or in communications with ABC 17 News.

Anders said on Friday that the investigation “involves the extraction of data from electronic devices,” so there is no timeline for when possible charges could be filed.

Anders wrote on Monday that the initial complaint involved harassing a youth.

“Initial complaint was harassment of a juvenile including a possible sexual variable. Investigation will take time with data dumps and forensic analysis,” he wrote.

Oldham was recently reelected to his seat during the April 8 election. He defeated Albert Reine Jr. 312 votes to 236.

A city spokesperson told ABC 17 News in a Friday email that the city will follow a state statute allowing the mayor to make an appointment to the seat. Whoever is selected will “serve until the next available regular municipal April election,” the statute says.  

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Haley Swaino

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Firefighters and medics used a bus to simulate a plane with injured passengers during a drill Monday at Columbia Regional Airport.

The triennial training allows emergency personnel to respond to a simulated plane crash.

A Go COMO Transit bus simulating an aircraft arrived on the COU tarmac Monday morning carrying dozens of volunteer crash victims. Some had special makeup done to resemble their assigned injuries.

“There’s a lot going on when we get called to these incidents,” Columbia Fire Department Capt. Wayne Cummins said. “Obviously, we have to peel back all the layers once we get here and figure out where the priorities are. And once we get all the agencies working together, it gets organized pretty quick.”

“Victims” treated the simulation like a real emergency by acting as if they had broken bones or were dead. During the exercise, emergency responders triaged patients based on their simulated injuries.

“We have maybe people that were not injured that were able to walk away from the scene, all the way to the practice of dealing with a fatality of a disaster,” Airport Manager Mike Parks said. “So we take it all the way through that scenario for them (emergency responders) to practice with their triage.”

Some victims were taken away by ambulances back to the airport parking lot, some boarded into an MU Health Care EMS helicopter that did not fly them away from the scene.

“What the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) requires is we try to get as close as we can to the number of volunteers that we would have for the average aircraft that’s used at the airport,” Parks said. “That way, it ensures that we have enough victims to be able to practice with all emergency responders.”

The FAA requires airport’s complete the full-scale emergency exercise every three years to maintain certification.

Parks said while conducting the exercise allows emergency service partners to collaborate in-person, it is not the only time the community discusses emergency preparedness at the airport.

“We’re always communicating,” Parks said. “We always have annual discussions about emergencies and how we would respond.”

The City of Columbia partnered with the Boone County Office of Emergency Management, local law enforcement and fire department agencies, health care providers and the Salvation Army for Monday’s exercise. Emergency responders arrived on the simulated scene in staggered times, as they would during a real emergency.

“We don’t want people driving all the way from Columbia or down in the southern part of the county out here,” Parks said. “So what we do is we stage the emergency responders in a nearby parking lot and then we time it out with a simulated response time from their agency’s headquarters.”

Cummins said the way the exercise is set up helps agencies maintain a sense of accuracy on what response to a Columbia air crash would look like.

“The order of arrival, the dispatch, how we handle the objectives on the scene were very much realistic,” Cummins said.

Initial units set up and organized the command’s response to the scene. Cummins said it takes a lot to come together and assess a scene of this nature, so being prepared is key.

“It was a good opportunity for us (all agencies) to train together and operate together under these conditions,” Cummins said.

All agencies closed out the exercise with a private after-action discussion.

“We’re going to go over everything that went on out there today, the goods, the bads, things that could have been better,” Cummins said. “And we’re going to collaborate together, all agencies, to discuss that and make sure that, God forbid this happened for real, that we could be better prepared and ready to do it if we really have to.”

According to data from the National Transportation Safety Board, there have been at least 250 U.S. aviation incidents in the first quarter of 2025 alone, 37 of which were fatal.

In Mid-Missouri, private aircraft crashes are far more common than commercial plane crashes. The last crash at COU was in July 2011, when the pilot of a small plane couldn’t get his plane’s landing gear down. He was not hurt.

The last deadly crash in Columbia happened in September 2009 when a pilot of a small plane crashed just after takeoff in bad weather.

April 16 marked the one-year anniversary of a deadly plane crash in southern Boone County.

It is also nearing the first anniversary of a May plane crash that happened near the Butler Memorial Airport in Butler, Missouri. Six people were forced to parachute out of the small plane.

A deadly mid-air collision in Virginia in January involved an American Airlines passenger plane and a Black Hawk military helicopter near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The same model of airplane involved in the crash — CRJ 700s — fly in and out of the Columbia Regional Airport. American Airlines CRJ 700 planes are used for some flights by Skywest between Columbia and Dallas.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Mizzou women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper took questions from reporters Monday afternoon along with star player Grace Slaughter.

Harper has signed several players since being hired last month to lead the women’s team after the departure of Robin Pingeton.

Watch the news conference live in the media player.

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