By the Associated Press and KFDI News
Authorities say a police officer and a gunman died following a shootout at a motel in eastern Missouri that left another officer wounded.
Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesperson Dallas Thompson says Bonne Terre officers Lane Burns and Garrett Worley were sent to a reported disturbance at a Motel 6 in Bonne Terre about 12:30 a.m. Thursday. Thompson says as they approached the room where the disturbance was reported, a man came out and fired at the officers with a handgun, and both officers were shot. Thompson says the officers returned fire, killing the man, later identified by Thompson as 21-year-old James Emery, of St. Louis.
Thompson says Burns later died at a hospital. Worley was flown to a St. Louis trauma center with a gunshot wound to the leg.
This was the second fatal shooting of police officers in Missouri in just over a week’s time. Two Joplin officers were killed in a shootout with a suspect outside a shopping center on March 8th. Funeral services were held Monday for 46-year-old Corporal Benjamin Cooper, and services will be held Friday for 27-year-old officer Jake Reed. 53-year-old officer Rick Hirshey was released from a hospital on Wednesday. The gunman was killed in the shooting.
[ photo: Bonne Terre officer Lane Burns ]
