Category: kmiz-local-news

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Missouri Task Force 1 has been activated by FEMA to assist in rescue operations following catastrophic flooding in Texas’ Guadalupe River. The Boone County Fire Protection District announced the deployment Monday afternoon.

At least 95 people have died in the flooding, according to reporting from CNN. The task force will focus on water rescues and human remains detection efforts.

A 52-member team left BCFPD’s Columbia headquarters around 7:30 p.m. Monday and will head to Kerr County, Texas. Missouri Task Force 1 is expected to be on the ground for up to 14 days.

“While the final destination has not yet been confirmed, the team will support search and rescue operations in response to the historic flooding affecting the region,” the release says.

Assistant Fire Chief Gale Blomenkamp said the team is deploying in a Type 3 configuration with additional personnel.

“There’s several different configurations that we can be deployed as,” Blomenkamp said. “A Type 1, a Type 3, a Type 4 or just a mission ready package. So FEMA requested a Type 3 task force, which is 35 people plus 10 for ground support, makes 45 people deploying. However, on this mission we have added four HRT, human remains detection, K-9 and handlers, and one additional search team manager.”

Blomenkamp said this mission includes an enhanced water rescue component due to the scale of the flooding.

“We’re going down with an enhanced water rescue package. And most of the members that are being deployed are either swift-water and/or boat-operator certified,” he said. “So we have that enhanced capability for water rescue anticipating this being a flooding event. That’s going to be some water. There’s going to be some debris and a lot of wide area search going on.”

Blomenkamp also compared the devastation to what the team experienced during flooding in Kentucky in 2022.

“The extent of damage that we’ve seen on TV, the amount of water that went through that area is really kind of unbelievable,” Blomenkamp told ABC 17 News. “It’s a lot of what we saw in Kentucky last year during those floods, just sheer devastation. So we are we’re prepared for that. We’ve seen it before. But those families down there, they need some closure.”

Preparation for the deployment was fast and detailed. Blomenkamp said the team had just four hours to mobilize after receiving the call. The team packed approximately 100,000 pounds of equipment for the mission.

Missouri Task Force 1 will be joined by Colorado Task Force 1 on Tuesday as recovery efforts continue.

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Matthew Sanders

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Missouri’s attorney general said Monday that he is appealing a Jackson County judge’s injunction, issued last week, that allowed abortion to proceed in the state.

Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a news release that his office has filed an appeal of the injunction issued last week. Judge Jerri Zhang issued the ruling on Thursday. The Missouri Supreme Court had blocked one of Zhang’s similar rulings in May and told her to reconsider under a different legal standard.

Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas City had said they would resume services Monday after last week’s ruling.

The lawsuit centers on state regulations that abortion choice advocates say make abortion de facto illegal. Planned Parenthood argued those regulations were at odds with Amendment 3, which was approved by voters in November and enshrined a right to abortion in the state constitution.

The injunction stops enforcement of those regulations while the lawsuit proceeds.

Bailey and other abortion opponents say the regulations are needed to protect women’s health.

Bailey claimed in a news release that the Jackson County injunction means the state can’t enforce laws against coerced abortion, require sterile equipment and clean facilities or require emergency complication plans. The injunction also means abortion providers can refuse to let pregnant women see an ultrasound of the fetus, Bailey claims.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

An “interested parties” meeting has been scheduled to discuss adding a sidewalk in a portion of West Broadway, according to a Monday press release from the city.

The meeting is scheduled for 5:30-6:30 p.m. Monday, July 14 at the Activity and Recreational Center at 1701 W. Ash St.

Organizers will discuss a concept for a sidewalk to be placed on the south side of West Broadway between Maplewood Drive and West Boulevard, the release says. The project is expected to include a 5-foot-wide sidewalk with a 3-foot-wide grass parkway and will include reconstructing driveway approaches, the release says.

west_broadway_sidewalk_preliminary_planDownload

If the project is approved, construction would start in the spring of 2027, the release says.

The public can leave comments on the project’s BeHeard site.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A tractor-trailer lost control and folded in on itself on Interstate 70 near Kingdom City on Monday.

The truck and trailer have the Hogan logo on them. The crash happened Monday afternoon and ended with the trailer blocking both eastbound lanes, a photograph shows. It’s not clear how the crash started.

Both lanes remained closed and it was unclear how long it would take to open them, according to the Missouri Department of Transportation’s online traveler map. A 68 mph wind gust was recorded nearby in Auxvasse around the time of the crash.

Traffic appeared to be backed up for miles.

A Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesman wrote in an email that there were no injuries.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Vandalia, Missouri, man was charged with four felonies after he was accused of molesting two children younger than 14 years old.

Dylan Preston was charged with two counts of first-degree child molestation and two counts of statutory sodomy of a child younger than 14 years old. A warrant was served on Monday and a confined docket hearing was scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday.

A deputy wrote in the probable cause statement that law enforcement was called to a Vandalia residence on Sunday after someone reported Preston allegedly had been sexually assaulting two child victims for “several months.”

The victims described multiple assaults, according to the statement. Someone described as a witness allegedly wrote in a statement to law enforcement that Preston eventually admitted to doing the assaults after initially denying it.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Fewer people were killed on Missouri roads during the Fourth of July weekend this year compared to last year, according to data provided by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Statistic provided by MSHP counted from a period of 6 p.m. Thursday, July 3-11:59 p.m. Sunday, July 6. This year, there were eight fatalities, 246 crashes with 115 injuries and 114 people arrested for driving while intoxicated.

A press release says that in the 2024 counting period, 14 people were killed and 560 were injured in 1,366 crashes, while 149 people were arrested for driving while intoxicated. Statistics for 2025 could change if deaths are reported late, according to the release.

On the water, there were nine boat crashes this year that led to four people being injured and 13 people arrested for boating while intoxicated. Last year, there were 10 boat crashes that led to seven people being injured, while 12 people were arrested for boating while intoxicated, the release says.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A 19-year-old Columbia man was found guilty on Thursday of three felonies in a July 2024 shooting.

Jeremiah Johnson was found guilty of first-degree assault, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon. He is currently being held at the Boone County Jail. He is scheduled to be sentenced at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 5.

A man was shot at 1 a.m. July 10, 2024, in the 200 block of Lincoln Drive. Court documents in previous reporting show that shell casings were also found in the 400 block of McBaine Avenue and a gun was found near a Jeep Compass that was registered to Johnson.

Johnson allegedly told police that he was shot at and fired back, court documents in previous reporting say.

According to a probable cause statement in previous reporting, a woman heard banging on her front door around 2:30 p.m. the day before and saw Johnson and a woman who she didn’t know. The woman had apparently wanted to fight the woman at the residence, the statement says.

Johnson then allegedly sat in his vehicle, held a gun, but did not fire it then, the statement says. A witness also allegedly told police that she saw Johnson hold the gun while in the vehicle. One of the women was allegedly able to show police a photo from Johnson’s Instagram account that showed the gun, the statement says.

The witness allegedly told police that Johnson threatened to come back to the area and “shoot this place,” according to the statement.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A 64-year-old Columbia man was in the Boone County Jail on Monday, facing six felonies for allegedly shooting at his mobile home park neighbors over fireworks.

Nevada Henderson was charged Monday with three counts of first-degree assault, being a felon with a gun, armed criminal action and child endangerment. His initial court appearance was set for Monday afternoon.

One of Henderson’s neighbors at the Blue Acres mobile home park told deputies that Henderson came out of his mobile home yelling at them over fireworks early Saturday, according to a probable cause statement. Henderson then walked toward them and began firing as they ran to their home for cover, according to the statement.

Deputies say they found several 9mm shell casings next to Henderson’s vehicle. Police found a .22-caliber pistol in Henderson’s home, but he denied having a 9mm handgun.

Henderson is being held without bond.

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Madison Stuerman

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Fayette woman charged with murder for the death of an 8-month-old girl in 2021 is back in the Boone County Jail after she was released by mistake.

According to jail records, Jennifer Johnson, 49, of Columbia, was booked into the Boone County Jail around 5 p.m. on Saturday. She was arrested and jailed in Pulaski County, Arkansas, on June 26.

She was extradited to Boone County after an arrest warrant was issued for Johnson in June, following her release on parole from a Missouri prison.

Online records show she was sent to the Arkansas Department of Corrections. A spokesperson for the Arkansas DOC said in an email there was not anyone by her name in their custody.

Johnson is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree endangering the welfare of a child for the death of Hannah Kent in 2021.

Boone County Prosecutor Roger Johnson told ABC 17 News in June that this is the first time he has seen something like this happen and is working with the Department of Corrections to address the issue.

Columbia police arrested Jennifer Johnson in April 2021, after being called to a home in the 1000 block of Elleta Boulevard in Columbia. 

According to court documents, police were dispatched to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Columbia on the morning of April 18, 2021, where they were informed that an 8-month-old, Hannah Kent, who was under her care, had died.

Jennifer Johnson allegedly told police that she last saw the infant alive at 2:15 a.m. after giving her a bottle, the probable cause statement says.

A court hearing is set for July 14 at the Boone County Courthouse.

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Jazsmin Halliburton

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Missouri Department of Transportation will begin nightly lane closures of U.S. 63 near Grindstone Parkway for interchange improvements.

From 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. until July 14, MoDOT will be closing one lane northbound on U.S. 63 to prepare for outside lane widening.

Construction on New Haven Road has been postponed until July 14, according to MoDOT. New Haven Road will be closed west of Warren Drive to just East of the westernmost entrance of the Woodstock Community from July 14 until mid-August.

Any of these projects can be delayed by the weather.

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