7 felony charges filed in shooting at Columbia connector
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A man was charged Thursday with seven felonies for allegedly being the driver in a weekend shooting at the Interstate 70/Highway 63 connector in Columbia.
Mechoal L. Lewis, 52, of Columbia, was in the Boone County Jail on Friday without bond after being charged with first-degree assault, three counts of armed criminal action, two counts of illegal gun possession and one count of unlawful use of a weapon.
The investigation that led to the charges started when police were called to the Break Time store on Conley Road, where they found a man with a gunshot wound to the mouth, according to a probable cause statement. Witnesses told police they had seen a man flee from a car on the connector, according to the statement. The car was then unoccupied and crashed into a median.
Police said Sunday that the victim's wounds were not life-threatening.
Officers say they found a bullet hole in the front passenger door, a tooth in the backseat and a digital scale with fentanyl residue in the rented Toyota Corolla.
One witness told police that she heard five or six gunshots while she was in traffic, then saw the unoccupied Corolla roll past her car. The Corolla even scraped the witness's vehicle, the statement says.
Another witness allegedly saw a person in another car shooting a rifle at the Corolla.
During the investigation, police found a second black Toyota that witnesses and Flock cameras had helped place at the scene. The car had bullet holes and blood on it, according to the statement.
Police then found a third car involved in the shooting, a gray Hyundai Elantra, that was driven by Lewis, according to the statement. Lewis admitted to driving the car on Sunday, but gave statements about his whereabouts that were contradicted by Flock camera hits on the car's license plate, police say.
The statement says Lewis admitted to driving the car during the shooting, saying others in the vehicle did the shooting, after he was confronted with video evidence. Lewis allegedly told police the shooting was retaliation for a shooting at a duplex earlier Sunday.
Lewis' first hearing is set for 1 p.m. Friday.
