West Worley shooter threatens more shootings following jail time
Courtdocuments reveal a Columbia man who was arrested for a July 5 shooting made threats that he would shoot again after being released from jail.
Saturday afternoon, the Columbia Police Department arrested Jamar D. Burns for the shooting that occurred in the 300 block of West Worley on July 5.
An unnamed witness in a probable cause statement said Burns asked him to go with Burns, Tavion Jones, and a woman to “shoot up a house on West Worley, affiliated to the group known as ‘Squad Up.'” The witness said Burns was carrying a Mac 10 style gun and Jones had a black handgun with an extended magazine.
That unnamed person refused to go with Burns, but heard “what sounded like 50 shots coming from the direction of Worley.”
When officers arrived after receiving several shots fired calls, they found one woman was shot, another grazed by a bullet and more than 20 shell casings found.
The victims said the suspect ran from the car and began shooting at them.
While in jail, Burns threatened that he would shoot more people when he gets out.
Police first arrested Burns Friday morning in regards to a drug call.
When detectives arrived, they located synthetic marijuana, marijuana and a handgun.
Burns was charged with unlawful use of a weapon, possession of a controlled substance, and unlawful possession of a firearm.
Hours later, police arrested Burns again at the Boone County Jail for armed criminal action.
As of Monday, Columbia has had eleven shootings over the the last three weeks, and seven of them since July 3rd.
Monday marks days five of no reported shootings in Columbia.
So while the streets have been quieter the past few days, police continue to saturate areas of high crime.
“We are re-evaluating the saturation effort to see if it worked. We believe that if you put more police officers out on the street in a proactive manner we’re going to see positive results from that- this saturation was successful- we got people arrested and were going to continue to do that in the future,” said Lt. Eric Hughes with the Columbia Police Department.
On Monday several who live along West Worley told ABC17 News this past week they had constantly seen police cars driving down their street.
Columbia police told ABC 17 News they teamed up with MUPD, Highway Patrol, and the Boone County Sheriff’s department for these saturation efforts.
“The shootings are occurring as a result of a feud between to a couple of different groups and we’re following up on leads constantly to see who is responsible for these shootings and we’re not gonna stop until we get that figured out,” said Hughes.
