Columbia man charged with assault after gun goes off during fight

COLUMBIA, Mo (KMIZ)

The Boone County Prosecutor's Office filed criminal charges against a Columbia man on Monday after a gun went off during a fight outside an apartment complex.

Lorenzo Toledo-Vara, 22, will remain in the Boone County Jail without bond after his hearing Monday.

The Columbia Police Department responded to a call around 2 a.m. Sunday of shots fired in the 10 block of Old Highway 63, outside Cliffside Manor apartments.

The probable cause statement states the 26-year-old victim was taken to the hospital with minor head injuries.

The victim told officers that Toledo had a gun and threatened to kill him, according to the statement. The victim allegedly told police that the gun went off as he and the victim were fighting, and he felt pain like a bar hitting him in the head and believed he had been shot.

However, the statement doesn't explicitly say the victim's wound was from a bullet.

Toledo told police that the victim had been "trolling" him and that the gun was fired accidentally during the struggle, according to the statement. A bullet hit the window of a vehicle when the gun went off.

Toledo is set to appear for his arraignment in court at 1 p.m. Monday.

Crimes against persons are seeing a slight downward trend, according to a graph from the Columbia Police Department.

It shows that from January to July 2025, 1,037 crimes have been reported, compared to 1,027 crimes so far this year.

At court on Monday, Lorenzo Toledo-Vara appeared via Zoom for his hearing. The judge went over his charges and said Toledo-Vara is facing up to 8 to 30 years in jail for the combined charges.

For felony assault, it is 5 to 15 years, and armed criminal action is 3 to 15 years.

Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Roger Johnson said a case like this could take a while because the investigation is still ongoing.

"And so in a case like this, it could be many months before we would be ready to move forward to trial," Johnson said.

According to the probable cause documents, there was one charge Toledo-Vara did not officially get charged with in court. That charge was unlawful use of a weapon.

Johnson said that because there are many factors that go into a court investigation, the charges will get dropped and added as they begin to unveil evidence.

"In any case, the investigation continues while the cases pending and it's very typical for charges to be amended or changed as the case goes forward," Johnson said.

During the hearing, Toledo-Vara asked the Judge if it was possible to give him house arrest and court fines because he said it was his first time ever getting in trouble.

No motion was made to grant his request.

Toledo-Vara is filling out the application for a lawyer and will have a bond hearing to try and make changes on July 28 at 1 p.m.

Johnson said he noticed the decrease in crime rates this year and believes it is due to the combined efforts of agencies working to keep Columbia safe.

“I could say overall that I think you'll see a continued decrease in violent crime as the number of police officers on the street goes up," Johnson said. " We've been successful in cooperating with our federal partners, especially  the Boon County Sheriff's Department and Columbia Police Department, combining their efforts with federal agencies  to get some guns off of the street."

Johnson expects to see a decline in crime rates as more police officers continue to patrol the streets.