Police: Man charged in Jefferson City homicide

Jefferson City police were investigating a deadly shooting in the 1400 block of Elizabeth Street early Saturday. Officers arrived shortly after 12:45 a.m. and spotted a car leaving the area at a high rate of speed.

A 33-year-old Jefferson City resident, Bryant Sturkey, was in the car suffering from the gunshot wound he would later die from.

Witnesses in the area identified Paris Alexander-Henderson as the suspect. He was later found in the Westview Heights neighborhood and taken into custody without incident. Police say Henderson admitted to his role in the shooting. He is currently in the Cole County jail. Saturday afternoon he was charged with second degree murder.

ABC 17 News spoke with Sturkey’s girlfriend who said the shooting could have been avoided.

“When they shot my baby daddy yesterday he looked me in my face and said babe I love you and my kids,” said Jamie Harrison, Sturkey’s girlfriend.

A 3 year-old and 1 year-old are now without a father. Harrison is now left questioning herself and what she could have done differently Friday night.

“I feel like if I would have just minded my own business none of this would have happened, all I was trying to do was help,” said Harrison.

Police said Sturkey and Henderson knew one another and that there was a dispute on Elizabeth Street before the shooting.

“The suspect felt this was a way to handle the dispute that was going on,” said Lt. David Williams with the Jefferson City Police Department.

“And now my baby daddy gone over something he had nothing to do with,” said Harrison.

Sturkey was shot in the torso and pronounced dead at the hospital.