Category: kmiz-local-news

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Lincoln University student died Tuesday night at a residence hall on campus.

Jefferson City police dispatch records show first responders were called to 825 Chestnut St. at 5 p.m. The Cole County Sheriff’s Office responded and Sheriff John Wheeler told ABC 17 News that foul play is not suspected.

A cause of death was not revealed on Wednesday. The name of the student was not revealed.

“Our Lincoln University community is saddened by the loss of one of our students. At this time, out of respect of privacy, we will not be sharing further details. We do offer our condolences to their family, friends, and all who knew them,” the university said in a statement.

The university shared that counseling services are available to students through TeleHelp and the Thompkins Health Center. Resources are also available to employees through the Strive Employee Life and Family program.

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Mitchell Kaminski

HALLSVILLE, Mo. (KMIZ) 

The Hallsville Board of Education held a pair of closed sessions before and after its 6 p.m. public meeting to discuss “personnel matters” after two teachers were placed on paid administrative leave following backlash over social media posts about Charlie Kirk.

Kirk, a conservative activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was killed in a shooting on Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University. He was 31.

Following his death, social media accounts matching the names of school district employees Anthony Plogger and Kayla Lewis were seen sharing posts from a social media page called “So Informed” that read:

“Charlie Kirk was a racist, xenophobic, transphobic, islamophobic, sexist, white nationalist mouthpiece who made millions inciting hatred in this country.

Whether it was his genocide denial, his transphobic tirades, his oushing for mass deportations, or his normalizing Trumpism for years, the man stood for nothing but hat.

I extend absolutely no empathy for people like that.

In this situation, my empathy is reserved for his children. May they grow up to live in a country that is the total opposite of everything their father envisioned.

May all of our children grow up to live in a country that values their lives enough to take gun violence seriously and reject any person who would try to justify senseless gun-related deaths – especially the deaths of children.”

Screenshots of the posts were shared around social media by public pages and community members. The school district wrote in its letter that the employees had “voluntarily removed the posts.” The screenshots do not show the employees giving additional comments.

Eleven people spoke at Wednesday’s Board of Education about the two employees, with only three voicing support. Bekki Brewer was one of the three who offered support for the suspended employees. 

“As you know, those two individuals have not violated any of our school policies. Both shared posts on their own time, on their private Facebook accounts,” Brewer said. “You, as the school district, have records that show that those teachers have been effectively performing their roles for years.”

The two others who spoke in support of the teachers argued that firing the teachers would be “giving in to the tantrums of bullies” and that other school employees had made similar private posts that were not leaked to the public. 

State Rep. John Martin (R-Columbia) had previously commented about the situation on his social media page, demanding that the employees be fired. He was one of eight people who believed the employees should face discipline. 

“I’m not here to speak against their First Amendment rights. They have those rights. But they do have consequences for their words,” Martin told the board during the meeting. 

Others who spoke said that the post set a “bad example for students”, “incited more violence that we should be standing up against,” and the employees failed to “uphold the basic moral principles such as morale is wrong. 

Records obtained by ABC 17 News show that Plogger is a seventh-grade social studies teacher who was hired on June 7, 2021, but didn’t begin teaching full-time until Aug. 6, 2025. Lewis is a middle school counselor who has been working for the district since Aug. 12, 2020. However, the district would not confirm that Lewis and Plogger were the teachers placed on administrative leave. 

The school district wrote in a letter to parents earlier this week that two employees were put on paid leave, pending the outcome of a review.

“We want to clarify that social media posts made by employees of the school district in their personal capacities and outside of their school duties do not reflect the opinions of the District or the Board of Education, nor are they endorsed in any way by the District. As a public school district, we recognize that our role is to create a learning environment where all students feel safe and valued,” the letter says.

The district says that Superintendent Tyler Walker made the decision to release the statement, adding that Walker is working closely with the district attorney. 

Kirk considered himself a passionate supporter of free speech and a vocal critic of “cancel culture.”

In June, Kirk spoke at the Oxford Union debating society in London, where he criticized British laws after a woman was arrested for a social media post urging people to “set fire” to hotels housing migrants. Her post came in response to the July 2024 Southport attack, when the teenage son of migrant parents fatally stabbed several people.

“You should be allowed to say outrageous things,” Kirk told the crowd in London. “You should be allowed to say contrarian things. Free speech is a birthright that you gave us, and you guys decided not to codify it, and now it’s proof, it’s basically gone.” 

On May 2, 2024, Kirk also posted on social media: 

“Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment. Keep America free.”

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Marie Moyer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

No one is in custody after several people fired a barrage of gunshots that hit homes and vehicles in a residential area just east of Columbia.

Boone County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Brian Leer said that at around 1:17 a.m. Tuesday, the department received several calls of shots fired from the area of Santa Barbara Drive off Route W. Two vehicles and several homes had damage from bullets, and several shell casings were collected, Leer said.

A home security video sent to ABC 17 News from a resident of the neighborhood shows at least three people shooting in the backyard of a home on E. Santa Barbara and running towards Roseta Avenue, where they continued to fire shots and were later picked up by a getaway car.

Several neighbors in the area reported being woken up by the shots. One neighbor told ABC 17 News that shootings have become common in the area in the past few years. ABC 17 News agreed to grant the person anonymity because of fear of retaliation for talking about violence in the neighborhood.

The neighbor added that it’s common for young adults and juveniles to walk around the neighborhood while armed and for retaliatory gun violence to happen between groups.

The same neighbor was also one of the owners of a truck that was damaged by gunfire. The bullets hit the truck’s windshield, back window, tire and engine.

“When they shot, they completely aired out our whole car, took out a few back windows of our neighbor’s house across the street, and I’m pretty sure a few bullet holes [in] the house that they were actually aiming at.”

As of Tuesday night, no suspects have been located or identified and no injuries were reported.

The Boone County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that there was no new information to share in the investigation.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The former president of Mizzou Students For Justice in Palestine was charged with a misdemeanor on Tuesday in Boone County for accusations related to a March incident.

Isleen Atallah, of Columbia, was charged with fourth-degree assault. A criminal summons was issued for Atallah to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 6.

University lawyers said in court Tuesday that Atallah was trespassed from the university following the incident. The probable cause statement says a student spoke with Atallah on March 17 when she had a booth set up at Speaker’s Circle on campus.

The victim alleged that Atallah became “belligerent” with him and started repeatedly yelling that the victim was a racist, court documents say. The victim started walking away, but Atallah allegedly grabbed his backpack that he was wearing, pushed him in his chest and followed and recorded him while calling him names as he walked toward Ellis Library, which is near Speaker’s Circle.

Atallah admitted to police that she pushed the victim, grabbed his backpack and called him a racist, the statement says.

The student at the time did not want to press charges, but reached out to law enforcement to press charges on Aug. 20, court documents say.

Charges were filed the same day a hearing took place in Kansas City over the university’s decision to reject MSJP’s application to partake in the school’s annual homecoming parade.

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Matthew Sanders

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Callaway County man pleaded not guilty Wednesday in his first court appearance on charges that he paid for what the U.S. attorney calls “live child sexual abuse videos.”

David L. Maddox, 59, was indicted on Aug. 5, but the indictment was unsealed in federal court in Jefferson City during his first court appearance Wednesday, the U.S. attorney’s office wrote in a news release. The videos Maddox allegedly paid for were produced in the Philippines, prosecutors say.

Federal authorities began investigating Maddox in August 2023 after getting information from the Portland, Maine, Homeland Security Investigations office that he was using Skype to talk to known traffickers of child sex videos in the Philippines, the release states.

Investigators claim Maddox paid the traffickers for live “shows” from minor victims between September 2021 and December 2023 — during which time he received about 20 shows.

The nine counts of attempted production of child pornography that Maddox is charged with each carry a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 20, with a trial date of June 1, 2026.

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Jazsmin Halliburton

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

A vigil for conservative activist Charlie Kirk will be held Wednesday night at the State Capitol.

The vigil will begin at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday on the south lawn of the State Capitol and all are welcome to attend. According to a press release, the event is not political and is community-centered, aiming to support and pray for the nation.

A memorial service will be held for Kirk at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on Sunday.

On Tuesday, prosecutors charged Tyler Robinson, who is accused of killing prominent conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, with aggravated murder, obstruction of justice, discharging a gun causing serious bodily injury, witness tampering and commission on a violent offense in the presence of a child.

The Utah County prosecutor announced they would seek the death penalty in Tuesday’s press conference.

Last week, White House officials and Republican lawmakers gathered at the Kennedy Center and held a vigil. Multiple members of the Trump Administration spoke at the vigil, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, who said it was Kirk who brokered a partnership between President Donald Trump and Kennedy during the 2024 campaign.

Turning Point USA’s chapter at the University of Missouri held a vigil for Kirk on the evening of his death last Wednesday.

“It was a lot to see someone that had influenced me in becoming more open about my politics lose their life like that,” said Brenden Poteet, President of the Mizzou College Republicans.

Kirk, the national group’s founder, was shot and killed at a Wednesday event held at Utah Valley University.

MU chapter President Paige Schulte told ABC 17 News they were in the final stages of getting Kirk to speak at the Columbia campus on Sept. 29.

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Matthew Sanders

Both of Missouri’s U.S. senators are telling the Trump administration that a Missouri location would be a great place to train new ICE officers.

Sen. Josh Hawley wrote a letter last week saying Fort Leonard Wood in Pulaski County would be an ideal place to train ICE agents. In his letter, Hawley noted the agency’s expanded role in detaining illegal immigrants for deportation.

Sen. Eric Schmitt followed up this week at a committee hearing, giving a pitch similar to the one Hawley made in writing.

Do you think ICE agents should be trained in Mid-Missouri? Let us know by voting in the poll.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Two people were killed in a three-vehicle crash Tuesday morning in Morgan County on Highway 50 near Old Highway 50, according to a crash report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The report says a 2013 Mercedes-Benz Class S – driven by an 18-year-old man from Sedalia – was heading eastbound when it rear-ended a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt driven by a 48-year-old Cole Camp woman.

The hit pushed the Chevrolet into the oncoming lane, which caused another crash into a 2012 Mazda 3 – driven by a 38-year-old Russellville man, the report says.

The Russellville man was pronounced dead at the scene and the passenger and driver of the Chevrolet were flown to University Hospital with serious injuries. The passenger – a 45-year-old Versailles man – was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The driver of the Mercedes was wearing a seatbelt, but no one else in the crash wore one, the report says. The Mazda and Chevrolet were totaled, while the Mercedes had moderate damage, according to the report.

MSHP reports do not name those involved in crashes.

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Mitchell Kaminski

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A $14.3 million settlement with internet provider Brightspeed helped give the City of Columbia more flexibility in its 2026 fiscal budget.

However, tough decisions remain over how to keep the budget balanced in the future. Brightspeed, which was previously CenturyLink, was sued by Columbia and Joplin in 2014 over unpaid license taxes and fees, according to court documents.

City officials said the dispute centered on fees tied to internet and streaming services that use the city’s right-of-ways, a significant source of revenue. Columbia argued that Brightspeed had not been paying its fair share, ultimately leading to the $14.3 million settlement.

“This lawsuit started two mayors ago. So this has been something that has been in conversation since 2014,” Columbia Mayor Barbra Buffaloe told ABC 17 News. “When I came on, you get a quick briefing as an elected official of the current litigation that is happening at the city. But you know, some of it is kind of far off and you don’t know if it’s ever going to be settled.” 

The lawsuit was scheduled for a trial last summer, but the judge dismissed the case in July because of the settlement. Records obtained by ABC 17 News show that the settlement was reached on July 16, while the city was still in the process of shaping its budget. 

“We didn’t actually get some money until later on in the budget process,” Columbia’s Director of Finance Matthew Lue said. “We’ve known about the lawsuit for a few years now, but we did not expect that we would receive a payment this soon.  So basically what it did was it was buy us some time to figure out  what we can do within the general fund  to assess the revenue situation, because  especially sales tax  with this  fiscal year, sales tax is flat, if not down slightly.”

The budget, which was approved by the City Council on Monday, sits at around $608 million. 

However, the general fund, which covers daily operations such as roads, police and fire, sits in the red with revenue expected to be around $132 million and expenses expected to be around $135 million.

“It’s definitely something the city is monitoring moving forward. But I think the influence in cash kind of helped us along and helped us to be okay with this for the short term,” Lue said. 

The deficit comes after expected tax revenue fell by around 3% last year. Because of this, the city dipped into its available cash reserves.

“If you look at our reserves, we have a requirement ourselves that we follow. We have at least 20% of our annual expenses that need to be held in reserves,” Buffaloe said. “We have over $20 million over what we need of that 20% in our reserves. And so when you look at it, I think it’s more of that we’re trying to make sure that we’re not having too much in savings and that we’re  spending the money on what it is our community wants.” 

The decision to dip into reserves happened before the city received the settlement money, because ensuring that city employees received raises was a priority for the council.  

“Before we knew about the settlement coming in, we were having some tough conversations from council to our city manager and administration. Because when we were looking at our forecasted revenues for fiscal year 26, when we were looking at what it was looking like in the spring, it did not look good. It looked kind of a plateau with what we were seeing, and yet we knew that expenses were increasing,” Buffaloe said. “We also knew that we had made a promise to our city employees that we would continue doing cost-of-living adjustments. Those cost-of-living adjustments have really helped us out because we’ve had like record numbers in recruitment and retention for police officers, public works employees, and others.  And so we knew we had to continue delivering on that promise.” 

City Manager De’Carlon Seewood had tasked every department with making cuts from everything from travel to training services, though the budget remained tight. The money from the settlement went into the reserve fund and will help cover costs from the general fund. It also helped ease the burden of covering cost-of-living adjustments for city employees. 

While the settlement helped, Buffaloe said the cost-of-living adjustments still would have happened without it. 

“We were just not going to be as healthy of our reserves without it,” Buffaloe said. “But it did, thankfully, give us a little bit more time to figure this out.” 

According to Lue, the city had an initial deficit of around $3.5 million but was able to get that down to $2.7 million. 

“It just made it a little bit more manageable for staff knowing that we have around $20 million over the required reserve that we could balance the budget with,” Lue said. 

Lue said that the three biggest-council priorities for the budget were public safety, personnel and housing, with one of the biggest challenges being trying to make the expenses match the revenue as much as possible. However, Lue did not rule out deficit spending in next year’s budget. 

“Because of ongoing spending, we would be looking to most likely deficit spend again next year in the general fund only. So that is going to cause us to have to take a deep look at current and existing revenues and then maybe something different in the future,” Lue said. 

As of now, Buffaloe said the city is not looking at tax hikes to help generate more revenue. 

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Erika McGuire

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia Housing Authority’s Kinney Point project, which will provide low-income housing, is nearing completion as about 800 households remain on the agency’s waitlist, according to CHA.

Ten of the 34 units being built are already completed and occupied, while the remaining units are expected to be filled by the end of November, according to Columbia Housing Authority CEO Randy Cole.

The number of those on the waitlist can be deceiving, Cole said, because the Section 8 waitlist has been closed for nearly six months, so CHA has not been accepting new applications. When all of the waitlist are opens, there are about 1,200-1,4000 households or close to 3,000 people, he said. Cole said about 80% of people on the waitlist are considered homeless.

For the time being, Cole said CHA has been fully utilizing all of its voucher resources and has been connecting people to landlords and the landlords have been helpful in participating.

Cole said CHA stops taking applications when the wait is close to two years. The waitlist likely won’t reopen until mid to late next year, with the elderly and disabled moving up the waitlist more quickly with a wait of six months or less.

“Right now we have about 750 units, but Kinney Point will add 34 more units, and then our new Park Avenue project, we’re going to add nine units, so we’ll have 43 more,” Cole said. “We’ll be approaching getting close to 800, by the time we’re done with all of our redevelopment projects in 2027,”

The Kinney Point Project is located on Garth and Sexton Road in central Columbia, costing a total of $13 million.

“We got $2 million from the city and home, ARPA funds and then we also got about $1.3 million from the Veterans United Foundation,” Cole said. “Then we got about $5 million in tax credits from this, state and then an additional $3 million in funds for the Missouri Department of Economic Development.”

CHA broke ground on the project last summer, which will also include a resource center for residents on site. The center will have social service staff on site to help connect residents to basic needs to programing and employment or referral to other provides. It will also offer space for nonprofits. There will be units serving between one-and-four bedrooms.

The monthly rent for the Kinney Point units depends on the number of bedrooms in each unit.

“It varies from around $700-to-$1,200,” Cole said. “But also each of the units has a voucher tied to it. so how much people pay is dependent upon their income, so if someone is elderly and disabled and has zero income they may pay zero in rent. If they’ve got gainful employment and they’re working, they’ll pay the max rent and they’ll pay the rent.”

CHA has other projects in the works including, Providence Walkway and Blind Baron and will offer 50 units. Those projects are expected to break ground next year and will be completely sometime in 2027.

Work to upgrade the Park Avenue Apartments has begun, with the first phase of the project expected to be completed early next year. The second phase is scheduled for completion in 2027.

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