Special prosecutor for officer-involved shooting death in Hitt Street garage
On Friday the court appointed Cooper County Prosecutor Doug Abele as the special prosecutor in April’s deadly shooting in the MU Hitt Street parking garage in Columbia.
Boone County Prosecutor Dan Knight filed a motion Friday, requesting a special prosecutor. Knight’s motion noted the two officers who discharged their firearms inside the garage have been involved in numerous cases prosecuted by his office.
On April 15, 51-year-old Mark Adair was shot and killed by a law enforcement officer inside the garage, according to Knight’s motion. Earlier that day, Columbia Police say Adair hid inside a woman’s vehicle at Moser’s Supermarket on Keene. When she arrived back at her vehicle, detectives say Adair displayed a handgun and demanded she drive away. There was a struggle, and the woman was able to escape.
Columbia Police and other area law enforcement officers searched for Adair, after the Moser’s incident. The parking garage shooting happened that evening.
Knight’s motion says a Columbia police officer and an officer from MUPD discharged their firearms in the garage. Knight’s motion says the CPD officer has been involved in 970 cases that have been prosecuted by Knight’s office. Knight says the MUPD officer has been involved in more than 10 cases that have been prosecuted by his office.
Adair had a lengthy criminal history.
In 1989, Adair pleaded guilty in Boone County to kidnapping and rape and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Missouri Department of Corrections spokesman David Owen tells ABC 17 News Adair was paroled in 2005, before returning to prison in 2008. Owen says Adair was released again in November 2013, and returned to prison in April 2014. Owen says Adair was paroled again on April 10, five days before the parking garage incident.
The Missouri Department of Corrections declared Adair an absconder and issued a warrant for his arrest on April 14, according to Owen.
