Columbia police officers cleared in January shooting
A special prosecutor decided to not file charges against Columbia police officers involved in a January shooting that left one dead.
Callaway County prosecutor Chris Wilson sent the letter last month clearing three officers on scene during the death of Troy Bateman. Those officers were involved in stopping a car Bateman was in on Oakland Gravel Road the afternoon of January 18. Bateman was wanted by the Missouri State Highway Patrol after he shot at a trooper in Saline County earlier that week.
Wilson’s letter said officers fired after a bullet came at them from the car, which broke the back windshield. Two officers shot back at the car, but Wilson said none of their three shots hit.
Bateman died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Wilson said. Dr. Carl Stacy’s autopsy in April showed soot in the wound and other signs of a suicide, Wilson wrote. A bullet casing that could have come from the gun found at Bateman’s feet was located near the back windshield, as well.
Boone County prosecutor Dan Knight asked Wilson to review the case in March after the Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control finished its investigation.
The officers, identified in the Highway Patrol’s investigation of the Bateman case as Sgts. Scott Hedrick and Roger Schlude, were conducting surveillance on a home Bateman was staying at. Another officer, Thomas Quintana, performed the traffic stop on Oakland Gravel Road. Two women in the car ran out of the car shortly after Bateman shot himself. Dashboard camera video from Quintana’s car showed that officers waited for the car to clear for 20 seconds before returning fire into it, Wilson wrote.
ABC 17 News obtained the dashboard camera video from the Highway Patrol trooper that pursued Bateman on January 13. Shots are exchanged off camera between Bateman and Trooper Nathan Wallace after Bateman crashed his car in a field off Fawn Road. The patrol came to suspect Bateman after finding a YMCA ID at the scene and interviewing several people in nearby Marshall that claimed to have spoken with Bateman shortly after the shooting.
