Category: kmiz-local-news

Ryan Shiner

Editor’s note: Faup’s age was corrected. A source’s error initially listed a different age.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Columbia city employee has been accused of stealing, according to a Thursday press release from the Columbia Police Department.

City Parking Manager James Faup, 38, was arrested Thursday morning on suspicion of felony stealing and misdemeanor stealing, according to the release. Faup appeared on the Boone County Jail’s online roster on Thursday afternoon. Information on the jail’s website say he was released on bond. Charges have not yet appeared on Casenet.

The release says CPD received a tip on Tuesday about someone wearing a Public Works uniform “who was exchanging a large amount of coins at a local business.”

Faup allegedly took coins from parking meters and exchanged them for paper money “for personal use,” the release says. Police wrote that Faup is no longer employed with the city, though he still appears on the city’s website.

A Public Works spokesman said the could not comment on an active investigation.

Check back for updates.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Cole County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Thursday press release that a bus driver was accused of assaulting a student on a bus on Wednesday morning.

The release says a Blair Oaks school resource officer was called by the district’s superintendent “in reference to an alleged assault that occurred on a school bus. The assault was allegedly committed on a bus, by a bus driver, against a juvenile student.”

The bus driver was not named, though the sheriff’s office said in the release that they are accused of fourth-degree assault.

The district had no comment on the matter on Thursday. Superintendent Ben Meldrum said the district uses Durham Transportation Services for its bus services. ABC 17 News has reached out to Cole County Prosecutor Locke Thompson.

A spokesperson with the bus company told ABC 17 News in an email that the driver was put on leave before being fired.

“We can confirm that we received a report regarding an incident involving our driver and a student and are cooperating fully with law enforcement on their investigation,” Summit School Services spokeswoman Anna Lam wrote. “We take the safety of our students very seriously, and upon learning of the incident, placed the driver on administrative leave and then terminated the employment of the driver.”

Check back for updates.

Press Release 4-2-26 -Fourth Degree AssaultDownload

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Boone County firefighters rescued a father and daughter who were stranded on top of a pickup truck in floodwater on Thursday.

The truck was stranded in water at Perche Creek on Akeman Bridge Road north of Columbia, Boone County Fire Protection District Assistant Chief Gale Blomenkamp said. Emergency radio traffic indicated the vehicle was almost fully submerged.

Crews were dispatched around 1:49 p.m. for a vehicle in floodwater. The two were rescued shortly before 2:30 p.m., and the scene was cleared just before 3 p.m.

Boone County Fire Lt. Ryan Benedict said the truck had been swept about 100 yards off the road.

“That’s one of the reasons why you don’t drive in floodwater,” Benedict said. “Because you don’t know where the road’s at and so even though the water on top of the road isn’t that deep, you know, you drive off the side of the roadway, and it’ll consume your vehicle very quickly,”

The water was over 3 feet deep when they were rescued.

“It’s pretty dangerous whenever you get into floodwater, just because it’s extremely unpredictable,” Benedict said. “You don’t know what’s going on on the roadway underneath you. You know, that’s why we always advise people not to even walk in flood water, let alone drive in it.” 

Officials deployed three rescuers in the water wearing personal flotation devices to reach the victims.

Franky Zuno was on his way to drop off his daughter, Zaira Zuno, at a dentist appointment when their route took an unexpected turn. The pair said they had originally planned to go a different way, but Google Maps directed them onto West Akeman Bridge Road.

“We saw it was flooded. My dad tried to turn around and thought a little water wouldn’t hurt,” Zaira said. “He started to back up, but the current was really, really strong, and it took the back end,”

Both Franky and Zaira recalled the moment as frightening. Franky said as the situation unfolded, he tried to reassure his daughter that everything would be okay.

The two said they had no cell service to call for help. Fortunately, a driver came by and noticed them struggling. That person then drove to an area with better reception to call for help for the father and daughter.

Zaira said a tip she learned on TikTok helped her act quickly and escape the truck before it was fully submerged.

“Immediately, as soon as the water started coming into the truck, I put the window down and I was like, ‘ Dad, we got to get out and so we climbed to the top’,” she said.

Franky Zuno, the truck’s owner, said firefighters told him the truck could remain there for several days before being towed because of more rain in the forecast.

The flooding occurred after storms dumped inches of rain on Mid-Missouri between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. More storms are expected Thursday night and again Friday.

Flooding also prompted a rescue near Versailles. A teen girl was rescued after clinging to a small stream 30 yards downstream from a low-water crossing on Ritchie Road, the Gravois Fire Protection District reported.

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Alison Patton

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The final suspect with a pending case for a deadly north Columbia shooting pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges of conspiracy to commit a crime and unlawful weapons offense.

Ja’Shaun Barney, 21, of Columbia, pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a weapon and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. Judge Joshua Devine gave Barney 15 years in prison for the weapons charge and 10 years in prison for the conspiracy charge, which will run concurrently.

Barney and another suspect, Damarkus Williams, were driving two separate vehicles on June 26, 2023, while passengers in the vehicles shot at the victim, Deshon Houston, and targeted another individual, Elijah Fox-Brown outside a home on Dove Drive. Houston died in the shooting.

Assistant prosecutor Tony Gonzalez said in court that Barney will have to serve 85 percent of his sentence before he becomes eligible for parole. He is expected to be transported from the Boone County Jail to the Missouri Department of Corrections within the next few days.

The plea and sentence on Thursday puts an end to the nearly three-year long court process stemming from Houston’s death.

Court documents allege Barney was driving a vehicle while Deazes Turner, Deljuan Turner and Alqueze Jones shot at Houston in June 2023. Williams was allegedly behind the wheel of another vehicle while Bryton Allen also fired at Houston.

Williams, 21, was sentenced to 10 years at the Missouri Department of Corrections for a guilty plea in November to second-degree conspiracy to commit murder, according to previous reporting.

Turner, 22, was sentenced to 21 years in prison; Jones, 22, was sentenced to the same amount of time, and both were charged with second-degree murder.

Allen, 22, was sentenced to 20 years for second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon. He was also sentenced to four years in prison for an unrelated case that involved resisting arrest in 2021.

Jajuan Crockett pleaded guilty in May to second-degree murder, tampering with a motor vehicle, two counts of stealing and one count of tampering with evidence. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Mexico, Missouri, man was arrested Wednesday night after he allegedly flipped an SUV while drunk and high.

The Mexico Department of Public Safety says officers arrested a 39-year-old man after he drove a Cadillac SUV straight on a curve in the 4800 block of Clark Street, went about a tenth of a mile off the road, hit an embankment, and flipped end over end for about another tenth of a mile before the vehicle came to rest on its roof.

The driver and his 32-year-old passenger, also of Mexico, got out of the SUV with little help and were taken by ambulance to University Hospital, police say.

Witnesses reportedly told officers that the SUV was driving recklessly and speeding just before the crash. Mexico police say they suspect the driver had been drinking and using marijuana.

Charges had not been filed in online court records as of Thursday morning.

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Madison Stuerman

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Thousands of people in Mid-Missouri were without power on Thursday morning.

Columbia Water and Light shared on X at 8 a.m. that an electrical outage was affecting 1,200 customers in south Columbia.

Matt Nestor, a spokesperson for the department, said a tree fell on power lines at Oak Lawn Drive. Crews were working to clear debris before replacing the lines. Power was restored for some customers at 9:20 a.m. It was adjusted to 256 customers without power.

As of 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Ameren was reporting 763 customers without power. The online map showed two clusters, one near Huntsville and another near Eldon.

Both outages were reported at 7:20 a.m. according to Ameren. The cause of the outage was still being assessed by crews assigned to the area. Ameren estimated power to be restored around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday.

Westran Fire Protection District shared on Facebook that a power pole caught fire in Huntsville. Photos show crews on South Main Street right near the city hall building.

An Ameren spokesperson said a power pole in Eldon was hit by lightning, causing the outage for about 400 customers at its peak.

Co-Mo Electric Cooperative, Inc. reported on Thursday morning that 735 members were without power in Morgan, Benton and Cooper counties. According to a Facebook post, these outages were caused by storms that passed through on Thursday morning.

According to the Co-Mo Connect outage map, the majority of those without power are in Benton County. The map states the outage was reported around 4:15 a.m.

A spokesperson for Co-Mo Electric Cooperative said as of 9:30 a.m., the outages were restored after a pole was replaced.

ABC 17 News has reached out for more information.

This is a developing story.

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Olivia Hayes

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

History was made Wednesday after NASA launched a crew to the moon for the first time since the 1970s Wednesday in its Artemis II mission.

The rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The last mission this close to the moon was the Apollo 8 mission.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, alongside Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, took off on their journey in the Orion spacecraft around 5:30 p.m. central time. The 10-day mission will loop the astronauts around the moon — but they won’t touch down on its surface. In their return back to earth the spacecraft will land the astronauts into the Pacific Ocean.

Students with the Columbia Aeronautics and Space Association gathered to watch the launch. Some of told ABC 17 News an event like Artemis II is something they thought they’d only ever read about in history books, until today.

“This is the first time I’ve ever actually seen a rocket even on TV,” said Em Robinson, a freshman apart of CASA.

“This is, of course, the Apollo of our day,” said Logan Allen, a senior apart of CASA.

Linda Godwin — a Missouri native who is a former astronaut and professor emeritus at the University of Missouri — during her 30-year career spent more than 38 days in space and more than 10 hours outside the shuttle on spacewalks with NASA. During went to the International Space Station during her final mission.

Godwin said while the path Artemis II astronauts are taking is similar to the Apollo 8 mission, astronauts this time are planning to look at different things. Apollo 8 was the mission where astronauts first left Earth’s atmosphere and reach the moon’s orbit. That mission occurred in December 1968, seven months before the Apollo 11 mission touched down on the moon.

“For Apollo [8], they mainly wanted the side that faced Earth to be lit because that’s the surface they landed on,” Godwin said. “On this mission, they’re kind of more interested in when the lunar lighting is shifted so they can see more of the back.”

Godwin said the astronauts will also be tasked with a number of different experiments.

“What’s changing in their own body, they’re gonna be looking a lot of tests and radiation measuring equipment,” Godwin said. “The things they are going to do to really help us understand that whole environment for the next crew.”

Eventually NASA has its sights set on putting boots back onto the moon’s surface. However, Godwin said recent changes may not make that possible until Artemis IV.

“The next mission, it’s going to be in low-Earth orbit and they’re hoping to have some landers available to to cruise and can practice and practice operations,” Godwin said.

Until then, Godwin hopes historical events like Wednesday’s launch will inspire the next generation. Students told ABC 17 NEws it’s done exactly that.

“It motivates me to keep me to stay focused and locked in on my career and my aspirations,” said Advik Vikas, a sophmore apart of CASA.

“I want to hopefully be the leader of Rocket Club next year,” said Samuel Merz, a homeschooled student apart of CASA and the Columbia Area Career Center.

Godwin said the Artemis II mission will also help them stay on top of maintenance while the moon lander is being built. This is especially important after issues found during Artemis I.

“The heat shield was the big one,” Godwin said. “They saw some evidence that it didn’t quite act like they thought it would and they spent some time really figuring it out, understanding what was wrong and also realizing that they could change the way Artemis II comes back into the atmosphere a little bit.”

She said NASA engineers are confident with the updated heat shield and adjusted reentrance point for Artemis II. Godwin added that the astronauts have practiced various mock failure scenarios in preparation.

“They and Mission Control are tied in together in these simulations to talk about and respond to failures and what they would do and particularly on ascent, it might have to be a quick response,” Godwin said.

She said there’s always the unknown in the back of an astronaut’s mind, but that’s where the repetition and practice come into play.

“There are certain abort modes they can execute, just like if they lose thrust at a certain time,” Godwin said. “You think about all the failures you can react to, you do everything you can to prepare for that and then you got to get ready for launch day and you’ve made it as safe as you can, you’ve trained as much as you can.”

The spacecraft will make its return to earth April 10.

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Marie Moyer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Three seats are up for grabs in the Columbia Board of Education election with all four candidates highlighting bullying as a major issue in the district that needs to be addressed.

Four people are running for three spots. Board President John Lyman, Vice President Paul Harper and Boardmember April Ferrao are trying to retain a spot on the board, while Dr. Keary Husain is looking to get on the board for the first time.

According to a survey for the 2025-26 school year, About 65% of students surveyed say bullying is not tolerated, but that enforcement was not consistent. The survey says 63% of responding students said their school atmosphere was mostly encouraging, but wanted more inclusiveness and fairness.

Lyman considered the bullying policy as “one place I’d like to see the district get better at.” Lyman added that he wants to make bullying reports more accessible and make the process of following investigations clearer.

“It’s moving the bullying report that’s kind of hidden right now on our website to and up front and top of mind,” Lyman said. “Something that’s easier to access for our families so that they know, ‘hey, if this is happening, this is where you go, this is what you do, these are the next steps, these are the things that happen after you’ve done that report, so that there can be resolution.”

LINK: Full interview with John Lyman

Husain similarly wants clearer ways to report bullying and more transparency in reporting data. He says this would be to make sure policies are being enforced equally across buildings.

“If you are reporting everything in a transparent fashion, you can see that, maybe 20 incidents were reported, but we’re only seeing data on the outcome of two,” Husain said. “Not everyone comes to the board meeting, not everyone streams the board meeting, not everyone is privy to the data or has a computer at home, just making this, ‘this is what’s happening in CPS.'”

LINK: Full interview with Keary Husain

Ferrao said the district’s bullying policy is something the Board of Education wants “to get right.” Ferrao adds she wants to make sure the policy is enforced and is well-documented

“Making sure that parents are informed, also making sure that there’s resources given to both the victim and the accused bully, making sure that we have data, making sure that if something is reported, it is written, it is documented it, so we can make data-driven decisions on that,” Ferrao said.

LINK: Full interview with April Ferrao

Harper said that he believes bullying isn’t being reported on as well as it should be. He similarly wants to make sure the district has adequate resources for student and parent support. Harper added that along with improving the policy, operations and district culture should also be addressed.

This includes setting clear expectations for staff and adding more procedures to clear up confusion.

“Making sure students who are bullied are supported, ensuring that the staff is doing what they need to do to process those things,” Harper said. “We need to make sure we’re supporting them [students] whether or not it actually fits under the definition of bullying, so we’re we’re making a policy so that all of those things happen.”

LINK: Full interview with Paul Harper

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

An associate judge has named Jeff Smith as the interim Miller County prosecutor.

The order appointing Smith was made by 26th Judicial Circuit Presiding Judge Aaron G. Koeppen. Smith will take on the roles until Gov. Mike Kehoe makes an appointment.

The appointment was necessary after Prosecutor Matthew Howard died on Monday. He was 64.  

The prosecutor position is up for election in the Aug. 4 primary. The last day to file was Tuesday. County Clerk Clinton Jenkins told ABC 17 News that one person, Robert Seek, filed to run on Tuesday.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Cooper County town was awarded $4.8 million in financial assistance from the Missouri Department of Natural Resource for upgrades to its wastewater treatment system, according to a Wednesday press release from the DNR.

It will cost a total of $6.28 million to upgrade Pilot Grove’s system and the city expects the project to be completed by May 2027, the release says. The project is designed to improve the water quality in Petite Saline Creek “by reducing pollutants and untreated discharges to the creek,” the release says.

Funding from the DNR consists of a $2 million loan and a $2.76 million grant through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, the release says.

There will also be $700,000 in city funds and $750,000 through a Community Development Block Grant, the release says. Funding is expected to save the city $1.5 million in interest during the loan’s 30-year period, the DNR says.

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