Category: kmiz-local-news

Euphenie Andre

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ).

Columbia Mayor Barbara Buffaloe is planning to take steps toward addressing violence downtown.

Buffalo responded on social media to an early morning shooting on Saturday that left three people injured, calling it “one too many.” She announced plans to create a task force of city, county, university, business, and community leaders to address downtown safety in a more coordinated way.

MU student Kaylie Stuart said she appreciates the mayor’s commitment to strengthening city safety.

“I think that’s really important as like a college student who’s down here all the time. it makes me feel safer to know that they’re making it something that’s like directly important and like on the top of the list for them,” Stuart said.

The city has already taken steps to strengthen its police presence downtown. Police ramped up its enforcement of misdemeanor offenses downtown in an effort to reduce violent incidents.

In June, Columbia added eight officers to the night shift, increasing patrol staffing by about 20 percent compared to last summer, according to Buffaloe’s post.

Columbia police responded to the shooting just before 2 a.m. Saturday in the 900 block of East Broadway.

The Columbia Police Department said 23-year old Misael Covarrubias, of Fellsmere, Florida, was involved in an argument near Ninth and Broadway when he pulled out a gun and fired multiple times. He was taken into custody and appeared on the Boone County Jail roster Saturday evening without bond.

The people he was arguing with were not hit. Instead, three bystanders, a man and two women, were caught in the gunfire.

All three victims were taken to the hospital. Police say one of the woman’s injuries are life-threatening.

Melissa Payne spends her weekends in downtown Columbia to collect money to pay her medical bills. What she thought would be an ordinary weekend turned into a day she will never forget.

“I seen several people injured. I found out that a young lady had been shot in her head and another man in his leg. I am on this walker thingy, so I tried to get down the street as quickly as I could. I was scared. I got to the quickest alley I could get to,” Payne said.

Kailee Whisber, a woman who claims to be friends with the woman who suffered life-threatening injuries said the situation is heartbreaking.

“We left like 20 minutes before and yeah, she’s in critical condition. It’s very unfortunate, and she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Whisber said.

Despite the overnight shooting, downtown bars were still busy Saturday night, with lines wrapped around the block for MU’s homecoming.

Stuart said she still feels some level of safety, crediting the police response.

“I think it’s really scary, but I think that seeing the response from the police force just coming as quickly as possible and trying to address it makes me feel a little better. But I just think keeping vigilinace while you’re going out is really important,” Stuart said.

Other students also expressed confidence in law enforcement.

“I still feel safe. I think that our police department here is awesome, and they do a great job at keeping it, keeping it calm and peaceful afterwards. So yeah, it’s really unfortunate, but I think I think everything will get go down a better road,” Tatum, Scharfen said.

Payne said that safety downtown has to be a priority.

“This is ridiculous. Our kids and our homeless people. I mean, we deserve to be safe down here instead of random drive by shootings. Bullets have no eyes,” 

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Alison Patton

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The University of Missouri Homecoming Parade kicked off Saturday morning, with the Mizzou Students for Justice in Palestine in tow.

The student group was barred from participating in the parade last year. MSJP was denied again this year but a federal judge ordered the university to allow the group to participate this year as long as it followed new parade policies.

“It’s a bit of trepidation,” MSJP President Lily Dunn said about getting to march. “A sense of pride and victory because all of this came not from just hoping the university accepts us, but from pure and hard work.”

MSJP decorated a truck with Palestinian flags and members of the organization were standing in the truck bed ready to hand out candy.

Before the parade started, there was a sign on the front of the truck that said “MU Alum Mohammed Aljamal says hello from Gaza.”

Aljamal’s LinkedIn shows he went to MU in 2015 for a year to study water and waste water treatment and civil engineering. He received a scholarship from USAID.

According to his LinkedIn, Aljamal currently works in Gaza.

Dunn claims Todd McCubbin, the executive director of the Mizzou Alumni Association, asked the group to take the sign down.

“For a member of the Alumni Association to tell us that we’re not allowed to display alumni on our truck, our decorated truck as a decoration, is insane to me,” Dunn said.

ABC 17 News reached out to McCubbin but has yet to receive a response.

MSJP didn’t walk with the sign, but two people held up the same sign and another new sign while in the crowd as MSJP marched by in the parade.

University Spokesperson Christopher Ave said no formal action would be taken on the day of the parade to reprimand any group that stepped outside of the parade policy.

“All entrants must comply with the event guidelines,” Ave wrote in an email. “Any entrants that violates them may face consequences.”

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Haley Swaino

EDITOR’S NOTE: Part of a quote has been removed because of its graphic nature.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Florida man is accused of shooting three people early Saturday morning in downtown Columbia.

According to a Saturday afternoon press release from Columbia Police, Misael Covarrubias, 23, of Fellsmere, Florida was arrested on charges of three counts of first-degree assault, three counts of armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon. Covarrubias is accused of shooting a man and two women.

One of the women suffered life-threatening injuries in the shooting, the release says.

Stephens College confirmed in a Sunday news release that its student Aiyanna Williams was the woman that suffered the life-threatening injuries. The college said Williams was declared brain dead after being rushed to University Hospital.

Police say Covarrubias was involved in an argument near Ninth Street and fired a gun off multiple times toward the people he was arguing with. The three people who were shot were in the 1000 block of East Broadway and were not involved in the argument, according to the release.

CPD spokesman Brian Mcneil told an ABC 17 News reporter on scene that all three people were taken to a hospital by ambulance.

At 1:51 a.m. an MU alert was sent out letting people know of the investigation and to stay away from the area.

After a man was arrested, CPD said there was no threat to the public.

Columbia Mayor Barbara Buffaloe posted on social media Saturday afternoon in response to the shooting, saying she plans to create a task force of city, county, university, and business leaders to address downtown safety.

An ABC 17 News reporter saw police tape up on East Broadway from the intersection of North Tenth Street to North Eighth Street.

At least eight Columbia police vehicles, two Boone County sheriff vehicles, and one MU ambulance were seen near the corner of East Broadway and North Tenth Street around 2 a.m. A Columbia police investigation van arrived on scene around 2:20 a.m.

ABC 17 News spoke to a witness at the scene shortly after arriving who said they were at a hotdog stand when they heard gunshots.

“You heard a tire screech and then some shots rang out,” Christian Barger said. “Me and the guys inside the stand ducked behind it and we’re hiding and bullets were whizzing by my face.”

Barger said he believed it was a drive-by shooting.

“We think we’re all good then a girl from the other side of the stand started screaming saying something about her friend,” Barger said.

Crime scene tape came down at around 7 a.m.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A plea hearing has been scheduled for next week for a man accused of manslaughter in a fatal crash in August 2024.

Walter Montejo, 27, is charged with two counts of first-degree involuntary manslaughter, one count of second-degree assault, misdemeanor driving while revoked and driving without insurance. He is being held at the Boone County Jail. Jail records show he is also being held on an immigration detainer.

Montejo is accused of killing Cindy Helms, 54, of Rockwood, Tennessee, and Melvina Colin, 84, of Broomfield, Colorado, during an Aug. 5, 2024, crash on Interstate 70 in Boone County.

A court filing on Friday shows a plea hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Boone County Courthouse. A pretrial conference had been scheduled for Friday and a jury trial was expected to last about three days, according to previous reporting.  

Friday’s filing says the “case has been resolved.”

Court documents in previous reporting say Montejo was driving a tractor-trailer when it crossed over the median and hit a U-Haul head-on, killing Helms and Colin.

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Mitchell Kaminski

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) 

When the Rev. Andrew McCausland was appointed to Columbia’s Wilkes Boulevard United Methodist Church in January 2024, he knew change was ahead.

His last appointment was in Union, Missouri, a rural town of just more than 12,000 people, with his new assignment bringing him to a city of more than 126,000.

“It has been an incredible blessing. This is an amazing community, Columbia,” McCausland said. “My last appointment, we had a Dirt Cheap liquor and a Dollar General. That was it.”

McCausland was told the ministry focused on serving the unhoused and that a day ministry, called Turning Point, operated out of the church. He said the move forced him to adapt his expectations of the congregation to be fluid in their expectations of him; but the goal remained the same. 

“Our most important roles [as pastors] is facilitating the congregation’s ability to have a relationship with God. And that’s going to be different in different contexts,” McCausland said. 

While his new role came with a different set of challenges, he said he felt prepared.

“This wasn’t a part of the decision to place me here, but I’ve had some experience as a child with homelessness and I’ve got a lot of friends on the edges, the margins in various other ways so I’m very comfortable with the vulnerable.” 

The church McCausland was joining also carried historical weight. Built in 1911 and opened in 1918, Wilkes Boulevard Methodist Church has long been a fixture in Columbia. Located at the corner of Wilkes Boulevard across from Hickman High School, the church has ingrained itself in the community. 

“I love these old buildings and the fact that they can still be vibrant parts of the community. One of my favorite parts leading up to our service is ringing the bell and hearing that,” McCausland said. “That’s to me just a part of community and the church being part of the community and trying to welcome the community.” 

In recent years, the church’s mission shifted toward providing support and worship opportunities for the city’s homeless community. 

“We see the most broken people in their worst situations but we get to be apart of their life, administering them and helping them to feel like human beings, which they like we all deserve to feel as special creations of God and that can get hard when you’ve fallen through the cracks and you’re unhoused,” McCausland said. “To have them as a part of a neighborhood can be a challenge and it’s been a challenge here. But it is incredibly important for us to reach out that hand.” 

McCausland stressed the broader importance of helping those on the margins.

“In the world we’re living in today, most of us, I’m not going to say the majority, but a good portion of us are one disaster away from being on the streets,” McCausland said. “I talk to people every day that became homeless at 60-, 70-years-old, that had good, vibrant lives, and then things just snowballed.” 

Wilkes Boulevard Methodist Church started Turning Point in 2014. Since then, it has turned into an independent, nonprofit organization. It also helped pay the church’s rent. 

In 2013, the church was having conversations about closing its doors due to financial difficulties. But founding Turning Point gave the congregation new life. 

“Turning Point gave them 12 more years to love people, serve people, serve the community,” McCausland said. “We do not have the steady membership that we used to have.  There has been a wonderful, wonderful group of 15-to-20 people that has done God’s work for a decade, and it gets to a point where its time to pass that onto someone else.” 

The church has been open about having financial difficulties, and hosted a public meeting in May to discuss the future of the church. But when Turning Point, the church’s primary source of funding, announced it would be moving to Columbia’s Opportunity Campus, which is expected to open next year, the writing was on the wall. 

Earlier this month, Wilkes Boulevard United Methodist Church announced it would be closing “after more than a century of ministry in Columbia.” McCausland described the congregation’s reaction to the news as bittersweet.

“We don’t want to get caught up in a pile of bricks. It isn’t the bricks that did the work. It’s all the people that were here,” McClausland said. “It is a good and natural thing that Turning Point is moving to the new facility because that’s going to offer a lot more coordinated resources for the unhoused and the disadvantaged.” 

The church and Turning Point will continue operations until the day the center moves. With the church set to officially close in June 2026, McClausland is hoping to end on a high note. 

“We believe that an end can be full of grace and joy just as much as a beginning. And that’s what we’re trying to hope for, is that as we come to a close, as the church itself comes to a close,  we’re going to close with grace and joy and celebration,” McCasuland said. 

McCausland said the church has received interest from several local churches and a school in relocating to the property. As Wilkes Boulevard Church closes, the congregation will turn the building over to the Methodist conference trustees, who will determine its future use. 

After a community town hall in May, it became clear that locals hope the site remains a church or community center. McCausland expressed optimism that the property will continue as a place of worship, though not as a United Methodist church.

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ABC 17 News Team

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Missouri high school football kicked off Week 5 of the 2025 season on Friday.

Scores from Mid-Missouri teams are posted below.

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Matthew Sanders

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Missouri Secretary of State’s Office has rejected three petitions submitted to get a newly redrawn congressional map before voters.

Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ office released three rejection letters late Friday. The letters were addressed to Richard von Glahn, with Missouri Jobs with Justice, and said the three petitions submitted by the political action committee People Not Politicians did not comply with statutes.

A spokesperson for the office wrote that the petitions were rejected after consulting Attorney General Catherine Hanaway.

Von Glahn said Friday that the campaign to get the question on the ballot would still move forward with more than 400 people attending training sessions across the state on Saturday.

Campaign finance records show the group continues to raise money, taking in $550,000 on Sept. 13 alone — a $50,000 donation from the United Food and Commercial Workers union and $500,000 from Global Impact Social Welfare Fund in Washington, D.C.

“The attorney general illegally and incorrectly is offering an opinion to reject this petition,” von Glahn said. He said Hanaway’s opinion on the petition language cites the incorrect section of the Missouri Constitution.

The Republican-controlled Missouri General Assembly passed the new congressional map during a special session this month. The map would break up one of the state’s two safely Democratic congressional districts by splitting up the Kansas City area.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Brunswick man was charged in Chariton County with a slew of sex crimes on Thursday.

Kenneth Paul Jr. was charged with six counts of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sodomy, two counts of fourth-degree child molestation and a lone count of third-degree assault. He was arrested on Thursday and his being detained without bond.

Heavily redacted court documents allege that law enforcement was contacted on June 6 about repeated sexual assaults allegedly committed by Paul.

The complaint indicates he had sexually abused the victim from Dec. 8 2021-June 6, 2025.

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Ryan Shiner

EDITOR’S NOTE: The state where the suspect was arrested has been corrected.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A man has been charged with five felonies after he allegedly broke into two southwest Columbia homes and stole thousands of dollars’ worth of jewelry and cash.

Seweryn Rapacinski, 62, of Poland, was charged on Thursday with two counts of second-degree burglary, two counts of stealing $750 or more and a single count of stealing $25,000 or more. An extradition order was filed for him from Nebraska on Thursday, court filings show.

The Columbia Police Department wrote in a Friday afternoon social media post that officers had detained Rapacinski and that he was arrested in Lincoln, Nebraska. His information was not listed on the Boone County Jail roster on Friday afternoon.

Rapacinski is accused of being involved in at least two burglaries on Torrey Pines Drive and several more in Michigan, according to the probable cause statement. Court documents allege that Rapacinski has no ties to Missouri and has overstayed a visa.

The first of the two allegedly occurred on July 10, where he and another person are accused taking $100,000 in jewelry and $5,000 in cash from a home between 2-3 p.m. that day, the statement says.

A 2007 Hyundai was allegedly seen on Flock cameras around that time, and Flock cameras and business cameras determined Rapacinski and another person ate a business on Clark Lane the day before and they checked into a hotel, the statement says. Rapacinski’s cellphone was also pinged around a mile near the burglarized home that same day, the statement says.

On Tuesday, another home in that area was broke into during a similar fashion during the day and a $12,000 dining set was stolen, the statement says. Court documents claim the suspect in that burglary was seen on video and looked similar to Rapacinski.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, (KMIZ)

A man has been charged with a felony and three misdemeanors after he is accused of threatening the lives of multiple people at a distillery on Thursday morning as he poured himself a beer.

Ashraf Habimana, 39, of Columbia, was charged with first-degree burglary, two counts of misdemeanor fourth-degree assault and a count of misdemeanor stealing. He was listed on the Boone County Jail roster on Friday morning and a motion to hold him without bond was filed. A court date has not been scheduled.

The probable cause statement says police were called to Six Mile Ordinary around 9 a.m. and victims claimed that Habimana entered the business while it was closed that morning, though the door was unlocked. Court documents say the business is open from 3-10 p.m. on Thursdays.

People inside the building were setting up for an event when Habimana allegedly asked them for a beer, the statement says. The two people allegedly said they did not work at the establishment and Habimana threatened to kill them, the statement says.

Habimana then allegedly grabbed a glass and poured himself a beer that was worth about $5, the statement says. Habimana then allegedly continued to make threats toward the two people in the building, including that he would “turn them into a pile of meat,” court documents say.

The two victims then allegedly went to the back of the building where there was an enclosed fence and Habimana walked around the building and threatened to jump the fence and kill them, the statement says. A witness also allegedly heard Habimana make threats, the statement says.

Habimana allegedly admitted to police that he threatened to kill the people in the building, court documents say.

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