By Leah Thorsen
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
MARYVILLE, Mo. — A Maryville police officer on Friday shot and killed a man who sprayed bullets into a house and into the street of a subdivision, Illinois State Police said.
The man, identified only as a 36-year-old resident of north St. Louis County, went to his ex-wife’s home in the first block of Augusta Court on Friday afternoon, said Lt. Mark Bramlett, the zone commander for the State Police.
The man and woman argued about 2 p.m., and he allegedly cut her hand with a butcher knife. The woman, 39, ran across the street to a neighbor’s house, where she called 911.
A Maryville police officer arrived. As he stood in the driveway of the house where the woman sought refuge, the man came out of his ex-wife’s house and fired several shots from a small-caliber handgun, Bramlett said. One of the bullets pierced a window of the neighbor’s garage, but no one was hit.
The Maryville officer returned fire, hitting the man in the chest. The man was pronounced dead a short time later at Anderson Hospital, less than a mile away from where the shooting occurred.
Bramlett said the man and woman had been divorced for a few years. He did not know why the man went to her house on Friday.
He said the woman did not require medical attention for her injured hand.
Maryville police would not answer any questions and referred all inquiries to the State Police. The Public Integrity Unit of the State Police is investigating the shooting, which is typical in officer-involved shootings.
Late Friday afternoon, the street between the woman’s house and the house where she ran for help was cordoned off with yellow police tape. A pair of sneakers and a red baseball hat lay on the street. Children on bikes and scooters rode past the cordoned off area, staring at the news cameras and police in their neighborhood.
The shooting happened in the Pinehurst subdivision, which sits near cornfields on the eastern side of the rapidly growing village of Maryville.
The subdivision was started in 2001, said resident Cathy Green. She and her family have lived there for about five years. Many families with children live in the quiet neighborhood, she said.
“It’s just one of those rare occurrences,” said Green, 49. “You never expect it, which is what everyone says when something like this happens.”
Copyright 2007 St. Louis Post-Dispatch