MU students moving back to Columbia after three weekends of downtown shootings

Students are beginning to move back to campus in preparation for school to begin Aug 20 amid continued reports of late-night weekend violence in downtown Columbia.

Angie Billington said she was unaware of the violence downtown as she moved her daughter, a University of Missouri freshman, into her dorm this week.

Billington said the university should inform parents and students of the downtown shootings to keep them aware and safe.

“Just by being proactive and letting parents of freshmen and parents of all students, not just freshmen,” Billington said. “Letting them know this is out of the ordinary but we are on top of this.”

One MU student who has lived in downtown Columbia all summer said he witnessed one of the shootings during his walk home from work.

“A car rolled up and starting shooting out of the windows and so I started turning around and walking the other way and … they started driving at me,” Tony Mano said. “I jumped behind a pillar and they just drove past me.”

Mano said him and his friends have started using Uber more often to avoid walking around downtown late at night.

Columbia city officials, police and business owners met one week ago to discuss methods to decrease the violence downtown. Mayor Brian Treece told ABC 17 News the recent shootings are related to drug deals.

Two cars exchanged gunfire downtown early Saturday, which marked the fourth incident involving gunfire in the past three weekends.