It will take several weeks to determine if a deputy acted properly when he shot and killed a Gower man after a pursuit Thursday night.
That deputy is now on administrative leave, as is his partner, who was injured in the incident, and is dealing with a lot of pain.
Law enforcement officials are asking for patience.
Buchanan County Sheriff Mike Strong, Andrew County Bryan Atkins, and Missouri State Highway Patrol Sergeant Sheldon Lyon held a news conference to offer what facts they could regarding the fatal shooting of 28-year-old Eric C. Auxier.
“I think it’s important that it’s done right, that the case is worked in the manner in which we all want it to be, and that takes time,” Sergeant Lyon said. “And, it takes us being patient. That’s what we would ask for, is just your patience as this case moves forward.”
Officials have not offered many details about the events that led to the pursuit, or precisely what happened in Amazonia just before 11pm Thursday. The incident involved a pursuit that began in St Joseph and ended near Amazonia along County Road 373 about three-quarters of a mile from K Highway. The Buchanan County deputy fatally shot the driver of the pursued vehicle after the suspect rammed the deputy’s patrol vehicle, injuring another deputy inside the vehicle.
Sheriff Strong says the injured deputy has been discharged from the hospital. “He’s under a doctor’s care and he’s having quite a bit of pain,” Strong said.
Two other individuals in the fleeing vehicle have been released from custody.
“They are not in custody, and I’m not aware that they were ever considered suspects,” Strong said.
“A violent act happened after the vehicle was stopped, which ignited this chain of events which include one of our deputies being hurt and led to the rest of the actions that happened.”
Andrew County Sheriff Bryan Atkins requested the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control investigate the incident.
“The investigators will be collecting the facts that are out there, collecting evidence, certainly the assets of the crime lab will be utilized out of Jefferson City if need be, and basically try to put together the events as they happened that night and compile that into a report,” said Sergeant Lyon.
“That report is then forwarded to the prosecuting attorney in Andrew County, at which time it is up to the prosecutor to determine whether or not this officer acted as a reasonably prudent man would act,” Lyon said.
“Our job is not to determine any type of justification or anything else. It’s just a fact-gathering mission, to gather the facts, compile them, submit them to the prosecutor.”
Lyon compared the situation to a fatal shooting earlier in the year on I-29 involving a state trooper.
“As you remember we had an incident with one of our officers earlier in the year on I-29 and it was several weeks,” Lyon said. I would expect this to be very similar.”
“We have our Division of Drug and Crime, full time investigators for the Highway Patrol. They’re troopers, and that’s what they do full time is criminal work and so that’s what they’re working on right now. They’re local troopers. It depends on what they find during their investigation. It is not uncommon to request some of the expertise out of the crime lab, or maybe one of the other investigators that has an area of expertise to come up and assist them. Right now, at the beginning stages the local troopers are assigned to that unit.”
Both deputies involved in the pursuit and shooting are on administrative leave, and Sheriff Strong says they will remain there until they have some findings from the prosecuting attorney’s office.
Lyon says that’s very routine.
“I think too we have to understand the traumatic event that this officer’s been through, and his family, and the things that they have to process, as a person and as a family. Sometimes we forget to think about that during these events.”