Woman escapes encounter with bail bondsman in Columbia

A woman drove off from a bail bondsman in Columbia following an encounter which brought Columbia police officers to the scene.

At around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, witnesses saw a man with a gun confronting a woman on Nebraska Avenue, just east of Providence Road. When officers arrived, they briefly placed the woman in handcuffs while they talked to her. Police then removed their handcuffs and turned the woman over to the man, a bail bondsman from Warrenton. Columbia Police wasn’t able to arrest her because there were no active warrants for her in Columbia at the time.

The bondsman later put the woman in his truck, but moments later she got out, into a vehicle and drove off.

The bondsman told ABC 17 News that pulling out a gun was perfectly legal. ABC 17 News checked and saw that throughout the state of Missouri there are bail bondsman training classes that help bondsman react in scenarios like the one today.

According to the Audrain County Jail, Julie Barksdale bonded out of Audrain County Jail Tuesday afternoon. She was arrested in Audrain County for theft.

Barksdale was on her way home, in the custody of the bondsman, when they met her sister at the corner of Providence and Nebraska.

ABC 17 News went to the two residences that were listed on her court documents. The first address no one answered, but neighbors say that a woman in her fifties lives there with a women in her twenties. The second residence, no one answered. Neighbors say Barksdale did live there at one point but don’t know when she moved out.

Barksdale has had multiple run ins with law enforcement across Mid Missouri for theft.