Category: kmiz-local-news

Olivia Hayes

CALLAWAY COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)

North Callaway Fire Protection District tells ABC 17 News that accessibility and clean up continue to be an issue for them when responding to accidents near construction zones on Interstate 70.

“What we usually end up having to do is kind of park and walk. We’re doing a lot of climbing over the barricades,” North Callaway Fire Protection District Chief Matt Walton said.

Work is being done for a portion of the Improve I-70 Project, which aims to make the interstate a three-lane highway across the entire state.

According to information from the Missouri State Highway Patrol, at least three crashes have occurred in a stretch of I-70 under construction since concrete barriers were placed along the roadway west of Kingdom City in early May. The most recent crash occurred near Millersburg on Thursday morning.

Walton explained that sometimes access can get so challenging they need to bring in outside help.

“We also have an automatic mutual aid with Millersburg Fire to come up. So that way they can approach from one direction, we can approach from the other, to try to cover the incident from two different sides to gain best access,” Walton said.

Other responding agencies told ABC 17 News they haven’t had much trouble working around the construction.

“The workaround that we have seems to be working just fine sometimes the traffic is completely blocked,” MSHP spokesman Kyle Green said. “We may have to come down a, you know, an on ramp the wrong direction or an exit ramp down the wrong direction and work our way backwards, but ultimately, using the outer roads, is a preferred method.”

Charles Anderson, Chief of Callaway County Emergency Medical Services, said his crews also utilize the outer roads. However, he said they were already doing that consistently before the construction started, so they haven’t had many issues.

Walton said his team doesn’t have easy access to outer roads.

“We did not have outer a road access this morning,” he said. “Our construction side is actually not where we have a lot of out of outer road access.”

Total completion of the Missouri Department of Transportations I-70 Improvement Project is expected by the end of 2030. Construction of the portion between Columbia and Kingdom City is expected to be completed by late 2027.

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Mitchell Kaminski

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) 

A Fayette woman charged with second-degree murder in the 2021 death of an 8-month-old girl is the subject of an active arrest warrant.

But two days after the warrant was issued, court and prison records indicate she still isn’t in custody. 

Jennifer Johnson was scheduled to appear in court at 9 a.m. Monday, July 14 for charges including second-degree felony murder and first-degree endangering the welfare of a child. She is accused in the death of Hannah Kent.

A Tuesday court filing shows that she was sent to the Arkansas Department of Corrections.

However, Arkansas DOC spokesperson Rand Champion told ABC 17 News in an email that a Jennifer Johnson was put on parole on June 16 and no one with that name is in custody. The spokesperson said a middle name was not available in their system.

According to the Missouri Department of Corrections, Johnson was released Monday. She had previously been incarcerated in Missouri from April 27-May 19, 2022, and again from May 23, 2022-June 16, 2025, despite the Boone County Jail having her listed on a no-bond hold.

Boone County courts issued a warrant for her arrest on Tuesday. Prosecutor Roger Johnson declined to comment on Thursday.

Court records list Johnson’s address in the 2001 block of Holly Avenue. But when ABC 17 News visited the property, the home appeared abandoned, and the lot surrounding it was under construction.

Columbia police arrested Johnson in April 2021, after being called to a home in the 1000 block of Elleta Boulevard in north 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 Johnson’s care, had died. 

Court documents indicate the parents left Kent and other children in Johnson’s care beginning around 5 p.m. the previous day. 

The mother found the child around 8:30 a.m. unresponsive and cool to the touch after returning home and immediately noticed bruising, court documents indicate. The parents then took the child to Women’s and Children’s Hospital, where the infant was pronounced dead at 8:45 am. 

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

According to court documents, Johnson took a call from the parents saying the baby had died and the parents wanted to see Johnson.

Two people who knew Johnson brought items that Johnson had at the home to the Columbia police, court documents say. Investigators allegedly found baby formula on Johnson’s clothes, and a swab of the same shirt tested positive for blood.

Johnson was previously charged with two counts of assault in Howard County in 2019. The complaint in the case states she strangled and bit another woman.

Kent’s family declined to comment.

DOC041921_04192021170840Download

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Nia Hinson

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson will never forget May 16, 2025.

It was a Friday around 3:15 p.m., meaning major roads in the city were already packed with traffic as rush hour approached. That would lead to even more issues down the road.

It was the day an EF-3 tornado struck the city of St. Louis and parts of St. Louis County, killing five and leaving behind miles of destruction.

Jenkerson said the tornado tore through the central and north-central sections of the city and was on the ground for roughly 8 miles. The storm was anywhere from a mile to three-quarters of a mile wide and took out electrical substations, affecting between 8,500 and 10,000 homes before it crossed the river into Illinois.

As if the thought of rescue efforts wasn’t enough for first responders to ponder, they now had to deal with the issue of getting equipment into the affected areas because of congestion on major roads.

“It was established fairly early on that this was a major event, that we had multiple homes involved. It kind of clipped the corner of where one of our major hospitals was located,” Jenkerson said.

That hospital was the Barnes-Jewish Hospital, along with the children’s hospital.

The St. Louis-area responders needed help. Missouri Task Force 1 — an urban search and rescue team based at the Boone County Fire Protection District headquarters in Columbia — was among the five agencies that answered the call during the 72-hour search.

Fearing mass casualties

Jenkerson said a little more than half of Kingshighway in the city limits, up to about Delmar Boulevard, was impassable at the time. That, along with major destruction to buildings that they could see from the ground, led emergency responders to think they were looking at a mass casualty event.

“So, the call was made out to Region C, which I’m the co-director in the state of Missouri, that we were going to need the task forces as soon as possible and to notify Missouri Task Force 1,” Jenkerson said. “Based on the radio reports we were getting from our dispatch center for calls for assistance, we had a very wide section of the city that was in need of immediate emergency response.”

Missouri Task Force 1 arrived in St. Louis around midnight and immediately got to work.

Jenkerson said they had already searched about 2,500-3,000 buildings within the first 24 hours of their response, thanks in part to Missouri Task Force 1’s manpower and equipment. But it was one small piece of equipment that proved vital during while saving people who were trapped: the drone.

“Immediately, we were probably looking at 12 or 15 to 20 areas that concerned us,” Jenkerson said. “A couple big churches, a couple commercial buildings, quite a few residential structures. And the drones gave us the ability to get a quick overhead look at what we were searching, how big the area was.”

Jenkerson said the drones helped emergency responders with their operational plan as they entered buildings. He said responders not only had to be worried about entering collapsed buildings, but also about the structural soundness of surrounding buildings.

The drones also allowed them to see what areas were stable and which areas were not, as they continued the process of delayering and digging down to people who were trapped.

Jenkerson said he flew over the area in a helicopter early on after the storm. However, being able to physically move the drones around near possible areas of entrapment and having an extra pair of eyes in the sky made all the difference.

“It just gives you a little more speed to get at buildings, but it gives you another set of eyes from a position that you normally can’t get eyes on,” Jenkerson said.

Jason Warzinik is Missouri Task Force 1’s technical information specialist and is the manager of the group’s Disaster Situation Awareness and Reconnaissance Team. He comes up with all of the training and leads the teams out in the field.

Warzinik said he believes the drones were highly effective during their deployment to St. Louis.

Jason Warzinik demonstrates one of the many capabilities of Missouri Task Force 1’s drones. (KMIZ)

Part of that was the ability to stream live drone video that night to the incident command. The next morning, crews were able to go out into the hardest-hit areas.

“Then, throughout those next two days, we had our areas that we were assigned,” Warzinik said. “But then of course when you get to the edge of your area, you’re doing a 360 kind of pan and based on those, it was pretty quick where incident command was going, ‘Hey, we need to go across that area, make a new assignment up to that path of that tornado.”

Task Force 1’s drones have helped other agencies, too.

In Mid-Missouri, Cooper County Emergency Management director Larry Oerly remains grateful for Missouri Task Force 1 more than two months after an EF-2 tornado struck Pilot Grove. The tornado was on the ground for about 5 miles and packed winds up to 135 mph.

Oerly said the county immediately started receiving reports from police and ambulance crews about damage and power lines down. During that time, Oerly said a determination was made that it was going to be an extended event.

He then made calls to the State Emergency Management Agency and eventually reached out to Missouri Task Force 1 for help. The Cooper County Sheriff’s Office had deployed its drones in the response, but they didn’t prove to be enough.

That’s where Missouri Task Force 1 came into play.

“Their drones are much more advanced than the ones we have,” Oerly said. “The drone can see things from the air that we can’t see from the ground. If there would have been maybe a body or something laying in a field or something, they could pick that up. Foot search would take forever to do that.”

How drones help local law enforcement and firefighters

It was about 7 p.m. on May 2, a Friday. Several law enforcement agencies gathered around a monitor and a vehicle on East Prathersville Road for hours. They were searching for two youths who had escaped from the Juvenile Justice Center. One of the two was being detained for murder, the other on a first-degree assault charge.

Law enforcement had searched the heavily wooded area and field after the two escaped on foot.

After hours of searches by the Boone County Sheriff’s Office, Columbia Police Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the last youth was found just before 10:30 p.m. That was thanks to a drone provided by Missouri Task Force 1.

The drone was able to pick up a “heat signature” from the juvenile, which led law enforcement to locate him about 30 feet high in a tree.

Brian Leer with the Boone County Sheriff’s Office said he thinks more fugitives would get away if it weren’t for the help of the drones.

“I’d just be guessing the percentage, but I’ve seen these drones help us find people that, in my mind, I go home and I think, ‘I don’t know that we would have found them had it not been for their drone,'” Leer said.

The vehicle belonged to Missouri Task Force 1, as well as the monitor. The screen allowed law enforcement to see what the drone saw in the woods. Leer said the technology was “instrumental” in the search.

A photograph of one of the large screens on one of Missouri Task Force 1’s vehicles. (KMIZ)

The drones are also useful during searches for missing people or in vehicle crashes when it’s believed someone has been ejected. Drones can see locations that are inaccessible to humans. GPS capabilities and the ability to see in the dark make them key.

The drones are also used in responses to wildfires and structure fires to determine where there’s potentially still fire or excessive heat, Boone County Fire Protection District Chief Scott Olsen said. They can also assist local law enforcement by flying into homes to locate potential suspects.

Olsen said he believes all drones are effective, but Task Force 1’s many pilots and variety of drones are what make them different.

“We’ve done a lot of training together with the existing drone pilots and other agencies, so a lot of times we get called because they need just additional resources, and we wouldn’t hesitate to call them if we need additional resources on something that we’re doing,” Olsen said.

Missouri Task Force 1 began flying drones in 2017. The district has roughly 30 drones, along with 30 pilots.

Since Jan. 1, the task force has hosted four training events and responded to five local fire and mutual aid callouts, as well as five severe weather deployments. All of that together adds up to a total of 240 flights, with an air time of 43 hours, 11 minutes and 16 seconds for a total distance flown of 348 miles.

In 2017, the task force received $10,000 in state funding to launch a course on safe drone operations. Initial funding that year also included $65,000 to build a GIS-equipped vehicle from an existing fire district command vehicle.

The task force received additional funding from the state over the years since then to create additional vehicles and expand training efforts. Another $302,000 was allocated to the team from the state this year to purchase equipment, software and to further team development, according to Warzinik.

The drones come in varying sizes and are quadcopters. They have a flight time of roughly 40 minutes. The largest drone is used for overwatch and has live streaming capabilities. The drone has a speaker, spotlight, superzoom and thermal capabilities that allow it to operate at night.

Missouri Task Force 1’s largest drone

Missouri Task Force 1’s medium sized drone

Missouri task force 1’s interior drone

A rangefinder allows pilots to zoom in on something and drop a pin on a map without having to fly the entire drone to the area.

The medium-sized drone is geared towards mapping and was used in the St. Louis storm response, after being purchased just two weeks earlier.

The task force’s smaller interior drones come in handy during structural collapses. They have lighting that allows pilots to see inside dark buildings. Pilots have to use first-person goggles when flying this type of drone, and can then view what the drone sees from a screen.

“For example, if its a hazmat situation, we’ll have the hazmat tech from the task force watch that screen, get the lay of the land … figure out the floor plan … look for hazards and then they know, ‘Hey, when we suit up we need to take A, B and C inside so they’re not walking in blind,'” Warzinik said.

Warzinik said the interior drones cost roughly $600, while some of the fixed wings can cost up $40,000 because of pricey thermal and mapping sensors.

The task force also has technology that allows pilots to see when other drones or aircraft are flying in an area.

This tablet demonstrates how the task force can view other aircraft in the area during a deployment. (KMIZ)

Missouri Task Force 1 also has two different types of fixed-wing drones. These sorts of drones have a flight time of 60 to 90 minutes. They can be useful when they need to map larger areas, like the path of a tornado or hurricane, and can map in two dimensions or three.

One of the task force’s “Fixed Wing” drones

A second “Fixed Wing” drone

One can be programmed to fly over an area and take photos that the task force can stitch together.

The task force also has two vehicles designed specifically for drone and geographic information system work. The vehicles allow them to take data from the drones and upload the data online through a system called Starlink.

That data is then uploaded online to a central system called SARCOP. This allows photos and mapping layers to be uploaded online, where incident command, SEMA and the White House can view them.

The vehicles are equipped with a camera that can be used during the day or at night, two large-format printers for printing maps and radios for communicating with local and federal agencies.

“It was not too many years ago where our map that we would get is literally stopping by Sam’s Club and getting the map book out of Sam’s Club and taping it together,” Warzinik said. “Now, you look at what we can produce inside of that truck, almost live images of the impacted area.”

A look inside one of Missouri Task Force 1’s vehicles that allows them to upload data from the field. (KMIZ)

The task force also has pickup trucks designed specifically for drone squads. The trucks also allow pilots to upload data quickly from the field.

That is also where live streaming platforms are used. Operators will hook up the drone’s controller to the truck’s monitor, allowing law enforcement and other agencies to see what the drone sees.

“The live feed was used throughout the event. It gave the incident commanders, who most of them were back at the command post, an idea of what was going on in the neighborhood,” Jenkerson said. “It’s like I said, any information you can add to the overall plan while it’s in operation gives you a better handle on what you’re doing of your search pattern.”

The future of drones and public safety

Missouri Task Force 1 is hoping to expand its use of drones.

Olsen said the task force isn’t able to fly its own drones when deployed on federal disasters. That included a recent trip to North Carolina, where the task force was sent for several days after Hurricane Helene.

Olsen said while there, the task force had to use other agencies’ drones. They’re working with FEMA to fly their own drones during federal deployments. A decision could come this month.

Olsen said his passion for wanting to expand how the drones are used stems from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He said he was one of five people who had to go into New Orleans and set up for urban search and rescue teams.

Olsen said at the time, they made maps by hand and received Excel spreadsheets from police listing people who were trapped. He then started learning how to use some of the task force’s GIS capabilities to download data and make a map to show teams where trapped people were.

Olsen said searchers immediately found about 25 people within areas they had already searched.

“So, I saw the utility of this sort of system to be able to No. 1, get drones out and find out where people are and get aerial imagery to see what’s actually going on in the area. And then secondly, to take that information and marry it with data that we were getting to be able to find people more quickly,” Olsen said.

The Boone County Sheriff’s Office has about seven drones, Leer said. He said the sheriff’s office drones are also used in vehicle crashes and in outdoor homicide investigations.

The Columbia Police Department has five drones. Digital forensic specialist Chad Craig said the drones are typically used to monitor large events, like parades in the city, or for finding missing children.

“The use of drones at CPD is still growing,” Craig said. “I mean, we’re still in our infancy stage of trying to see how best to use, both for documentation, for real-time information and for assisting patrol operations and that kind of thing.”

Jenkerson said his fire department would love to expand its drone fleet.

“Any department in the state of Missouri is not going to handle this [tornado] by themselves, so having a regional asset, if you will, to come in and be on the ground within 24 hours, which they did, kind of allows you a little bit of room not to have every toy that you want,” Jenkerson said. “Drones that are made for hazardous material response, drones that are made for large-scale incidents like this, there’s always room for it and it’s something we’re looking at.”

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A shakeup has occurred in Stover.

The Stover Police Department wrote in a Wednesday night social media post that now-former Mayor Clayton Judd will step down from his position in order to become the city’s new police chief.

Judd had won a narrow race in April against Michael Lowe. Alderman Gregg Sidebottom was named the mayor pro tem during the meeting. Sidebottom previously served as the pro tem prior to Judd’s election.

“In a small town like Stover, it is not uncommon for family and friends to end up working together. It is never something that was planned, just the nature of close knit communities. With that said, Sergeant Cassidy Judd’s continued service in her role does not fall under Missouri’s nepotism laws. The City follows all legal and ethical guidelines, and these matters are addressed appropriately and lawfully when they arise,” the post says. “Clayton Judd ran for mayor with every intention of serving his full term. However, when he was asked to take on a larger role for the good of the community, he humbly resigned as mayor and accepted the responsibility of leading our police department.”

Former Chief Chuck Black’s retirement was announced during a June 9 special City Council meeting. Judd also stepped down during the same meeting.

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Erika McGuire

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The City of Columbia is simplifying the time limits on on-street parking meters downtown by making operational changes.

Starting the week after July 4, the city will reduce the number of time-limit options from six to four. The goal is to simplify payment, reduce confusion and increase parking turnover.

Currently, drivers choose from six time limits:

24 minutes

1 hour

2 hours

4 hours

5 hours

10 hours

Under the new plan, according to a council memo, drivers will choose from:

15-minute curbside pickup

1 hour

3 hours

10 hours

“Two hours often isn’t enough for someone to comfortably dine, shop, or attend a meeting,” Columbia Public Works spokesman John Ogan wrote in an email Thursday. “Switching to 3-hour meters in core areas gives visitors a better experience while still promoting turnover,”

There are 1,795 on-street metered spaces in downtown Columbia, according to the city, and 1,666 will be affected by the changes.

Proposed parking limitsDownload

The 1-hour meters will be near government buildings, the police station and the post office. Three-hour meters will be concentrated in the heart of downtown, including areas south of Elm Street. Long-term 10-hour meters will be found west of Fifth Street, east of Tenth Street and north of Ash Street.

Ethan Jones, owner of Mindnright Wellness on Broadway, said changing the hours from two to three in the heart of downtown won’t make a difference,

“People take the ticket anyway because there is nowhere else to even park at and so I don’t [think] expanding it an extra hour even matters,” Jones said.

Jones claims many drivers don’t care enough to look at the time-limits and the color-coordinated meters.

“I don’t think people pay attention to any of that they are just trying to find a spot to park at, but I think the 15-minute parking [spaces] are nice for my customers. But outside of that I don’t think people pay attention to the color coordinated of times, three hours might help people stay a little longer,” Jones said.

Student Finn Boland sees the change as adding flexibility for quick visits downtown.

“It doesn’t restrict anyone because it goes above the minimum expectations unless you are trying to do the five hour one in which case you would have to default to the 10,” Boland said.

Lauryn Carolton has lived in Columbia for about five years and said parking downtown has always been an issue. But the extra hour gives her piece of mind.

“I kind of put a couple quarters in and hoped by car was still there i think that extra hour will be beneficial if you go see a movie and get something to eat that’s about three hours so it makes a lot more sense,” she said.

The changes do not affect meter rates or enforcement hours. Parking costs per hour won’t change, and meters will still be enforced Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. On Saturdays, enforcement runs from 8 a.m.-noon. Sundays are free.

A Walker Consultants analysis showed that Columbia has more time limit variations than most comparable cities, with three or four time limit systems being standard.

Ogan said equipment delivery could affect the schedule of the changes.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

State Rep. Dave Griffith (R-Jefferson City) is looking to become the Cole County Clerk next year.

Griffth – who will be at the end of the limits of his term next year – told ABC 17 News on Wednesday that he plans on running for the clerk’s office. He said that he is planning on running after learning that Clerk Steve Korsmeyer will not seek reelection.

Filing for the November 2026 election begins in February of the same year.

Griffith currently represents Cole County in the Missouri House and was elected in 2018. His biography on the Missouri House’s website says that he served as the executive director of the American Red Cross for six years, was a member of the Jefferson City Council and spent 23 years working for KRCG.

He served as a green beret in the U.S. Army, according to the bio. He is also a member of the Kiwanis Club, Rotary International, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Easter Seals Association, Red Cross Board of Directors and the Special Olympics, his biography says. He is a graduate of Missouri Southern State University.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Rehabilitation work on the northbound Highway 63 bridge over Interstate 70 in Columbia begins next week and will require extending the single-lane, head-to-head traffic in the area, according to a press release from the Missouri Department of Transportation.

The existing work zone is between the Broadway overpass and Conley Road overpass. Beginning Wednesday, June 25, all through traffic on Highway 63 between Broadway and Vandiver Drive will be shifted to the southbound lane for head-to-head traffic, the release says.

All on- and off-ramps are expected to remain open.

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Celeste Springer

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — A Michigan attorney says he is in contact with the wife of the Boulder terror attack suspect and has released a statement on her behalf.

Hayam El Gamal, the wife of the Boulder terror attack suspect, was taken into ICE custody along with her kids after her husband allegedly unleashed a fury of Molotov cocktails on demonstrators in Boulder. The demonstrators hoped to bring attention to Israeli hostages; the suspect, Mohamed Soliman, reportedly yelled “Free Palestine” during the alleged attack.

“My five children and I are in total shock over what they say my husband did in Boulder, Colorado earlier this month. So many lives were ruined on that day,” read a portion of the statement from El Gamal. “There is never an excuse for hurting innocent people. We have been cooperating with the authorities, who are trying their best to get to the bottom of this. We send our love to the many families who are suffering as a result of the attack.”

According to officials, Soliman was living in the country illegally after his visa expired. Following the alleged attack, his family was swiftly taken into custody to be processed for removal from the United States. A federal judge ruled that the family cannot be deported without due process.

A press release from attorney Eric Lee says Soliman’s wife and kids have been in an immigration jail in Texas for the past two weeks.

“This includes my two four-year-old children, my seven-year-old, my fifteen-year-old, and my oldest daughter, who just turned eighteen in jail,” said Hayam El Gamal.

Attorney Eric Lee says the federal order prevents the government from deporting the family under expedited removal. They will have their day in court, and Lee told KRDO13 over the phone on Wednesday that he hopes to make it clear that no one in the United States should be punished for the alleged crimes of another person.

Lee also said that the family can’t be deported under expedited removal because they have been in the country for more than two years.

According to the Immigration Legal Resource Center, “any noncitizen who entered the United States with a visa or documentation cannot be removed under this process. Even if they have overstayed their visa, they are entitled to a hearing before an immigration judge. Additionally, anyone who has lived in the United States for two years or more before an enforcement encounter is not subject to expedited removal.”

According to Lee, the family entered the country legally on valid visas. He says they overstayed those visas, but had acquired work permits. Lee said they were derivatives of an asylum application, which is sought when a person has a well-founded fear of persecution in their original country.

El Gamal’s full statement is below:

“My name is Hayam El Gamal. My five children and I are in total shock over what they say my husband did in Boulder, Colorado earlier this month. So many lives were ruined on that day.

There is never an excuse for hurting innocent people. We have been cooperating with the authorities, who are trying their best to get to the bottom of this. We send our love to the many families who are suffering as a result of the attack.

My kids and I were arrested by ICE on June 3, put on a flight to Texas in the middle of the night and have now been in an immigration jail in Texas for two weeks. This includes my two four-year-old children, my seven-year-old, my fifteen-year-old, and my oldest daughter, who just turned eighteen in jail. We are grieving, and we are suffering. We are treated like animals by the officers, who told us we are being punished for what my husband is accused of doing. But why punish me? Why punish my four-year-old children? Why punish any of us, who did nothing wrong?

Since coming to America three years ago, we have tried to do everything right. We got work permits. We learned English. My daughter and I volunteered teaching English to other immigrants, to help them become more comfortable in America. We have always tried to be good neighbors, cooking food for those around us regardless of whether they are Muslim, Christian or Jewish. I do not judge anyone based on his religion. If your heart is good, that’s enough.

All I want is to give my children good lives. My oldest daughter volunteered at a hospital; she has a 4.5 GPA and wants to become a doctor, to help people in this country. My kids want to go to school, they want to see their friends and deal with their grief from recent weeks. But here they can’t sleep. They cry throughout the day, asking me, ‘When will we get to go home?’

When we were first detained, my children were forced to watch officials rough-up another detainee, and they cried and cried, thinking they would be roughed-up, too. Now my seven-year-old is about to have her birthday in jail, and my fifteen-year-old, too. All they want is to be home, to be in school, to have privacy, to sleep in their own beds, to have their mother make them a home-cooked meal, to help them grieve and get through these terrible weeks. But instead, we are here, in jail in Texas, where you can’t be human. Where you are always being watched.

Where you are woken up in the middle of the night by guards and given food fit for animals.

Only mothers can truly understand what we are going through. I did everything for my kids. It has been two weeks in jail, how much longer will we be here for something we didn’t do? How much longer until the damage to my children is irreversible? It has been so hard for me to stay strong for my kids. I’m so tired. I ask the American people, with all my heart, to please listen to our story and help us.”

-Hayam El Gamal

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Keriana Gamboa

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia City Council on Monday night voted 5-1 to keep its current mission and vision statements after months of proposed change.

President Donald Trump on Jan. 21 signed an executive order that targets the language surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion — commonly referred to as DEI. — alleging it promotes discrimination. There have been concerns over whether keeping the mission statement could impact federal funding for the city.

However, the vote passed and now gives the green light to the City Manager De’Carlon Seewood to accept federal grants, which are used to fund the health department, police department, and affordable housing. 

The statement will remain to say, “We recognize the local government’s role in our community’s history of systemic oppression. We are committed to removing these barriers and rooting our priorities, decisions, and culture in the principles of diversity, inclusion, justice and equal access to opportunity.”

“So basically, what the council did was they reaffirmed our language. They just state that we are an inclusive community and that we value inclusivity,” Seewood said.

City Officials told ABC 17 News the White House administration could determine that the city is in violation of the executive order. If that happens, it could possibly result in the withdrawal of federal funding. However, the city won’t know it’s in violation until it’s been told it’s being investigated.

They also say they are looking into the idea of meeting in October to discuss the possibility of updating the city’s strategic plan, based on new data and input from the public.

Ward 5 Councilman Don Waterman was the only vote in opposition, saying he felt the new amendment and resolution language were insufficient in order to stay in compliance with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 21.

“The reason I wanted to change the language and I was in favor of changing the language is to protect the funding for the entirety of the City of Columbia,” Waterman said.

Some city officials believe the original statement is not in violation.

“The executive order identifies specific steps that cities are taking that might violate what they’re referring to as illegal DEI, and this is just a definition. It’s not an action step,” Ward 3 Councilwoman Jacque Sample said.

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Olivia Hayes

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The family of Zarian Simpson is speaking out after one of people accused in the robbery and killing of Simpson appeared in court on Wednesday.

Simpson was killed on Sunday night at a Columbia apartment complex.

Steven Padden, 34, of Columbia is charged with first-degree robbery, armed criminal action and second-degree felony murder. He is being held at the Boone County Jail without bond. A hearing was held on Wednesday where Paden appeared by video from the jail. A confined docket hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday, June 26; while a preliminary hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday, July 15.

Nathan Simpson, Zarian’s older brother, described Zarian as bright, intelligent and hardworking.

“He could do anything he put his mind to. I’m not even kidding. Like anything he wanted to do, he did it,” Nathan Simpson said.

Zarian Simpson just graduated from Hickman High School in May. His brother said he was saving up to buy a new car.

“He wanted a Corvette actually,” Nathan Simpson said. “My little brother fixed them cars, you know that? He did that himself. He put them together, he did the wraps, he did the star lights, all of it.”

The Missouri State Highway Patrol statistics show that Columbia has had 133 gun-related crimes this year. People ages 10-17 were the largest age group of those arrested for violent crime in Columbia, according to the data.

Nathan Simpson is urging the parents of teenagers to step up and break the cycle of violence.

“Half of these parents out here right now; You can’t even call them asking where the kids are. They don’t know. They don’t care. They just let their kids do whatever they want. And what’s even worse is have these parents is condoning it. They do it with them,” Nathan Simpson said.

Three teens are also behind bars awaiting their first court appearances. Two of the teens will face a judge on Friday morning.

The City of Columbia’s Office of Crime Prevention told ABC 17 News that after the events over the weekend, it’s looking into prevention and intervention strategies to help lower crime rates amongst youth in the area.

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