Detective: Shooting arrests difficult without cooperation
A lack of cooperation from victims or witnesses often hampers investigations into violent crimes such as the shooting Monday of a man in the parking lot of a busy Columbia retail area, a Boone County detective said.
Columbia police investigated two shots fired cases Monday: one on Stadium Boulevard and one on Typhoon Court. In a news release from the city, officers said the investigation into a shooting in the parking lot of a shopping center off Stadium Boulevard was “difficult.”
“The victim and witnesses did not wish to share much information,” a Columbia Police Department spokesman wrote in the release.
Arrests had not been made Tuesday in either case.
An ABC 17 News review of CPD news releases about shootings since Jan. 1 showed arrests have been made in four of the 13 cases. Ten people were arrested in those four cases.
CPD Chief Geoff Jones was not available for an interview, but the county sheriff’s department also runs into violent crime cases made harder to solve by a lack of cooperation.
“That could be due to a number of factors,” Boone County Sheriff’s Department Det. Tom O’Sullivan said. “One, the victim is uncooperative or you don’t have witnesses or you have witnesses that are not cooperating with law enforcement.”
O’Sullivan said some witnesses or victims could be uncooperative if they were involved in a crime themselves. In the Monday shooting off Stadium Boulevard, police said they believe the victim was selling a marijuana vaping cartridge.
Another issue could have to do with unreliable witnesses or victims.
In March, the sheriff’s department investigated after a man with a gunshot wound showed up at department headquarters. Deputies said the victim’s statement was vague and changed several times during questioning.
“You have to develop sufficient probable cause to arrest someone,” O’Sullivan said. “If you don’t have a victim that’s cooperating and you don’t have solid witnesses, you can’t go to court with something like that.”
