By Jeff Lehr
The Joplin Globe
JOPLIN, Mo. — A Jasper County sheriff’s deputy was shot Wednesday serving a search warrant at a Joplin motel.
Nolan Murray, a deputy assigned to the Ozarks Drug Enforcement Team, was wounded about 4 p.m. while serving the warrant with other narcotics officers on a second-floor room of the Econo Lodge at 3510 S. Range Line Road.
Murray, who was wearing a protective vest, was struck in the upper part of his body by a shot fired out the window of the room. He was reported to be conscious and speaking when taken by ambulance to the Joplin hospital where he underwent surgery.
The shooting led to a three-hour standoff between a Joplin Police Department special weapons and tactics team and the suspected shooter holed up in the room. The standoff ended shortly before 7 p.m. when the suspect — E.F. Fitchpatrick, 43, of St. Louis — came out through a window and surrendered.
Fitchpatrick was taken to Mercy Hospital Joplin by ambulance. Suspected drug activity in the room led to the serving of the search warrant that resulted in the shooting of the deputy.
“He was bleeding,” police Capt. Rusty Rives said. “We do not know yet what caused that.”
He said charges would most likely be filed sometime today in connection with the shooting of the deputy.
According to Rives, ODET officers did not return fire into the room when Murray was shot.
The SWAT team spent some time trying to make contact with the suspect after being called to the scene. They tried flushing him out with gas before deploying a robot through the broken window of the room to give the team a view of what was taking place inside. The suspect could not be detected in the view provided by the robot and was presumed to have barricaded himself inside a bathroom.
Rives said the suspect finally emerged about 6:40 p.m., climbing out the window of the room even as the SWAT team was preparing to breach the room’s door with the aid of an explosive charge. Police then blew the door open to gain entry and make sure there were no others remaining inside.
Rives said SWAT team members conducted a walk-through of the room following Fitchpatrick’s surrender. But the search of the room was being left to investigators charged with processing the crime scene. Rives said he did not know if any drugs had been found. He indicated that a firearm was recovered.
Drug raid
Suspected drug activity in the room led to the serving of the search warrant that resulted in the shooting of the deputy.
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©2017 The Joplin Globe (Joplin, Mo.)