Category: kmiz-local-news

Jazsmin Halliburton

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A 29-year-old Wellsville man was seriously hurt after a crash in Montgomery County just before midnight Monday, according to a crash report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

According to the report, the man was driving a 2002 Saturn LS south on Highway 19 at Harness Dr. when he went off the left side of the road, hit a ditch and flipped the car.

The man was taken by ambulance to University Hospital with serious injuries. The report states he was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. The Saturn had extensive damage.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The No. 16 Missouri Tigers are heading out on the road for the first time this season.

The Tigers will continue their SEC schedule Saturday with a trip to Auburn. Mizzou fell from No. 14 after losing a close one last weekend in Columbia to Alabama, 27-24.

Now they’ll attempt to get back in the win column against unranked Auburn.

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Meghan Drakas

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Columbia mother is asking community members to be brave and come forward to the police to help solve her son’s 2017 murder.

“It has really affected us … We just need someone to speak up and say what they saw,” Vivian Morgan said. “I guess they fear for their life, which is understandable. But I feel like we need to get justice for Jamar.”

Jamar Hicks was born in Minneapolis in 1990 and moved to Columbia with his mother when he was 5 years old.

“He was a kind and sweet young man,” Morgan said. “He was very friendly, spoke to everyone, and had a crazy laugh that everyone loved. You just heard him coming.”

His mother says growing up, her oldest son loved playing sports, including soccer, basketball and football. Hicks attended Shepard Boulevard Elementary School, Lange Middle School and graduated from Hickman High School.

Jamar Hick’s senior yearbook photo (credit: Columbia Public Schools)

After high school, his mother says Hicks worked in the shop at Bob McCosh. She said he loved cleaning and working with cars. He drove an Infiniti G35 Silver Coupe. His mother says he was driving that car the morning he died.

When shots were fired along Trimble Road in east Columbia around 3 a.m. on July 16, 2017, Columbia Police Lt. Matt Gremore said, officers were nearby at the IHOP and immediately ran over. When officers arrived, they found that a woman and a man in their 20s and Hicks had all been shot.

“I think they were ambushed, that’s what it looked like to me,” Gremore said. “I believe this was a targeted event.”

Gremore said Hicks was shot multiple times and was found inside the car. Police say the woman who was shot ran into the Break Time convenience store, and the other man who was shot was found nearby.

At least 24 evidence markers alongside Jamar Hick’s vehicle could be seen by ABC 17 News crews at the shooting scene of Hicks and two others along Trimble Road in east Columbia on July 16, 2017.

“The belief is they were all shot while inside the car,” Gremore said. “Two were able to run out and get out of the car … you could tell that the car had come across the road and had rested after hitting the curb here where it came to a stop.”

Gremore wouldn’t share a description of the suspect’s car but said police collected evidence at the scene, including shell casings, Hick’s car, the victims’ clothing and surveillance footage from nearby businesses.

“There [are] multiple people I believe are involved in this and multiple people that we would want to talk to, to get the truth out of them of what happened,” Gremore said.

Police say all three of the victims were taken to the hospital. Hicks’ friends survived, but he was pronounced dead not long after the shooting.

Check back and watch ABC 17 News at 10 for the rest of the story.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A woman was charged in Montgomery County on Thursday after three children allegedly tested positive for methamphetamine.

Missy Lacomb, of Middletown, was charged with three counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child. A criminal summons was served to Lacomb on Thursday, according to court filings. A hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4.

The probable cause statement says deputies were called at 4:36 p.m. Aug. 17 to a Montgomery County residence for a reported domestic incident. Three children were removed from the residence and all three – ages 16, 10 and 5 – allegedly tested positive for meth, the statement says.

The statement alleges Lacomb has been contacted by authorities before about care for the youth.

“Lacomb discussed with me her having the children all the time while the other suspects were out all night,” the statement says.

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abc17news-Newsroom

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The City of Columbia will gather public input Thursday night on how to make the Business Loop safer for pedestrians, motorcyclists and others.

The meeting is set for 5 p.m. at the Boone Electric headquarters on Range Line Street.

The road safety audit on Business Loop 70 between Stadium Boulevard in west Columbia and Eastland Circle in east Columbia is part of the Vision Zero road safety program. The project aims to improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists, seniors, motorcyclists and school-age children. The findings will be integrated into the larger Loop corridor planning process.

The study, a collaboration between the Columbia City Council, The Loop CID and Great Rivers Engineering, seeks to improve safety, accessibility, and economic vitality along the corridor.

The Columbia City Council recently approved several million-dollar infrastructure projects, including the study for Business Loop 70.

The total cost of the study is capped at $2,623,500, with $500,000 funded by Capital Improvement Program sales tax funds. The rest will be covered by federal funding. Great Rivers Engineering will conduct surveys, gather public input, and develop engineering plans to address issues such as stormwater management, bike lanes, and pedestrian crosswalks.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A man and a woman from Sedalia were killed in a crash Wednesday at Highway 50 and Route MM in Pettis County, according to a crash report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The report says the crash occurred as a 2015 Toyota Camry – driven by a 50-year-old Sedalia man — went southbound through the intersection after the light turned green. A 2004 MAC dump truck hit the side of the Toyota in the intersection, the report says.

The dump truck was driven by a 36-year-old Shelbina man who had no reported injuries.

The 50-year-old man was flown to Bothwell Regional Hospital and was declared dead there. The passenger in the Toyota – a 48-year-old woman from Sedalia – was pronounced dead at the scene by the Pettis County coroner. Everyone in the crash wore a seatbelt, the report says

MSHP reports do not name those involved in crashes.

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Olivia Hayes

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

LiUNA Local 955 members are calling for University of Missouri Chancellor Mun Choi to rescind an email warning staff about free expression and make it clear that conversations and statements around wages, benefits and working conditions are protected speech.

The group will rally in front of Jesse Hall on Thursday in response to Choi’s email sent out on Sept.16th.

“If an employee’s speech can cause disruption such as workplace disharmony, impeded performance or impaired working relationships, the university’s interest in the efficiency of its operations may outweigh the employee’s rights of free expression,” the email states. “Speech that causes significant disruption can be a basis for discipline or termination, even when it occurs off-duty.”

The email was sent after the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. After Kirk’s killing, conservatives, including Vice President J.D. Vance, called for harsh consequences for people who post certain statements about the attack or Kirk.

Late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel was briefly pulled off the air for his comments about Kirk’s shooting and Republicans trying to take political advantage of it.

LiUNA Local 955 represents service and maintenance workers throughout the University of Missouri System, including MU Health Care.

“Union members, and all UM-System workers, have the constitutional right to collective bargaining in the Missouri Constitution. We have constitutional rights regarding freedom to assembly and freedom of speech,” union representative Andrew Hutchinson said in a news release.

The rally begins at 5 p.m.

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Alison Patton

EDITOR’S NOTE: AI was used to research the background for this story.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Seven businesses have signed up for Columbia Police to enforce trespassing and parking rules while they’re closed — four of them since Friday.

University of Missouri and Columbia City leaders are asking downtown businesses to sign a form that would allow the Columbia Police Department to issue trespassing warnings to unwanted people on private property.

Without a letter of enforcement, the business owner would have to be present for trespassers to be cited, Boone County Prosecutor Roger Johnson has told ABC 17 News.

The push to sign comes after a Stephens College student, Aiyanna Williams, was shot dead last month. Two other people were injured in the shooting.

The City of Columbia and MU leaders sent out an action plan to reduce crime the following week, which included the enforcement letter as one of 11 ways to reduce crime.

MU Chancellor Mun Choi walked through downtown last week to highlight the issue. Meanwhile, police have stepped up downtown patrols, with Columbia Police Chief Jill Schlude saying officers found 20 guns during traffic stops last weekend.

Check back for updates to this developing story.

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Jazsmin Halliburton

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Local Columbia musicians will be holding a rally in support of a Columbia man who was detained by ICE agents after coming back to the U.S. from a trip to Europe.

Blue Note and Rose Music Hall’s head of security, Owen Ramsingh, was detained at O’Hare Airport in Chicago in September, after he returned from visiting family in the Netherlands.

“The CoMo Music Scene was rattled when Owen Ramsingh was unlawfully taken into custody by ICE when attempting to re-enter the country,” according to a flyer for the rally. “It is time that we show up for Owen in the same way that he has showed up for us all of these years.”

The rally will be at Columbia City Hall at 5 p.m. and is an invitation to all musicians, welcoming all instrumentation. Rally goers will be playing “Rockin’ in the Free World” by Neil Young on repeat for one hour.

Organizers ask rally goers not to use antagonistic messaging toward ICE, due to it possibly hurting Ramsingh’s case.

Ramsingh’s family was able to speak with him on the phone throughout the day as he was being detained, until ICE took away his phone. His wife was also able to call him for ten minutes on back-to-back days, during which he described the conditions in the Broadview, IL, detention facility as a “30-by 30 foot room packed with 75 other people, with only 20 chairs and no beds.” 

Ramsingh has lived in the U.S. since moving here as a child in 1998 and was issued a green card as a child of a U.S. Citizen. According to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, he was detained because of convictions for possession of marijuana and cocaine.

“September 27, CBP arrested Owen Romann Ramsingh, a criminal alien from the Netherlands,” Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a statement. “His criminal history includes convictions for cocaine possession and marijuana possession. This criminal alien is in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

“A green card is a privilege, not a right, and under our nation’s laws, our government has the authority to revoke a green card if our laws are broken and abused.”

Court records obtained by ABC 17 show Ramingh was charged with drug possession in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1998 when he was 17. He pleaded guilty the next year to attempting to commit a felony.

The following year, records show he was cited for having less than an ounce of marijuana in Nebraska and fined $100.

He also has an expunged 2011 conviction in Boone County for marijuana possession. He has had a green card since 1986, Ramsingh’s wife, Diana, told ABC 17 News.

The last information Diana has is that Owen was being transferred to a detention center in El Paso, Texas. He has a court date in Illinois scheduled for Oct. 15.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Boone County Sheriff’s Office says no one was hurt after a home in the 4200 block of Santa Barbara Drive was hit by gunfire on Tuesday morning.

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Brian Leer told ABC 17 News that deputies responded to multiple calls about shots being fire at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday. A home was hit and no one is in custody.

Leer stated several shell casings were found in the area.

Law enforcement was called to the same street – which is in a neighborhood east of Boone County – on Tuesday, Sept. 16. Two vehicles and several homes were damaged in that shooting.

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