Second woman charged in Columbia attack

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A second woman has been charged after a woman was attacked by a group and shot last month in Columbia.

Shaunasty Townsend, 33, of Columbia was charged Tuesday with first-degree assault and first-degree robbery in connection with the attack April 16 on Elm Grove Drive in northeast Columbia. Columbia police arrested her Monday and she was in the Boone County Jail on Tuesday on a $100,000 cash-only bond.

Townsend is accused of being part of a group of women who ambushed another woman as she visited an address on Elm Grove to buy or sell clothes, according to a probable cause statement. The woman was shot once in the leg and had a fractured femur, according to the statement.

The victim told police after she fell from being shot in the leg the other women beat her, including hitting her in the head with the gun.

Surveillance video showed the victim pulling a gun out of her purse when she was attacked, according to court documents. The statement says the pistol went off while the victim was pulling it out of her purse before the attackers wrested it away from her. The statement does not say the pistol was fired again.

Townsend can be seen on video beating the victim, according to the statement.

Another woman, Najah McHenry, was charged last week with first-degree assault.

No lawyer was listed for Townsend in online court records.