SWAT raid takes place less than a mile from elementary school

Cole County deputies worked with the Jefferson City Police Department’s SWAT team to serve a drug and weapon search warrant Thursday morning that resulted in the arrest of Jordan Reece Stokes.

Investigators recovered stolen guns, drugs and thousands of dollars in cash that Stokes later admitted to police was the product of drug sales.

Court documents said this all occurred just before 8:30 a.m. in the 5600 block of Ravenwood Drive.

Less than a mile away, Pioneer Trail Elementary School started classes just 15 minutes before the SWAT raid of Stokes’ apartment.

Cole County Sheriff John Wheeler tells ABC 17 News the department considers a long list of variables when deciding upon the method through which a warrant will be served.

This instance, the sheriff said, did call for SWAT but did not require notifying the principal of Pioneer Trail, an action that will sometimes be taken.

The sheriff would not comment further on Thursday’s raid other than to say that it was meticulously planned, as are all SWAT actions.