The St. Joseph Police Department is reporting an officer-involved shooting that resulted in a woman’s death Sunday. (Area of town corrected)

Commander Eric Protzman said officers responded to the area of 10th and Sycamore streets around 6 p.m. in reference to a disturbance call. Protzman said when officers arrived on scene subjects took off running from the area.  One of the subjects, a woman pulled out a weapon and fired at officers. He said  one officer returned fire and shot and killed the woman. Protzman said authorities are still working to positively identify the woman who is reported to be a St. Joseph resident.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol has been called in to investigate the incident. The officer involved in the shooting was not injured and has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation.

Roads in the area were still closed off as of 8 p.m. and could continue to be closed for some time. As more information becomes available we will post an update.

The St. Joseph Police Department has seen an increase in domestic violence reports since the introduction of Text 9-1-1 in 2016.

Chief Chris Connally said through the end of September this year, there were 1,400 total assaults reported.  Of those, he said more than 1,000 were domestic related.  Connally said assaults saw a spike in June and July.

“When we went to Text 9-1-1 we started reaching some groups we haven’t reached in the past,” Connally said. “We’re finding that we’re getting some cases that are probably being reported that might not otherwise be reported.”

Connally said some of the text reports are coming in from children or victims who would otherwise have trouble making a phone call. As we reported, Buchanan County introduced Text 9-1-1 in 2016.

Connally said police are trying to reduce domestic violence incidents. He said the police department entered a partnership with the YWCA and the Buchanan County Prosecutor’s Office about a year ago to try to reduce the number of domestic violence issues.

“When we respond to a domestic assault it’s a questionnaire that the officer goes through and it’s scored at the end.  It’s scored based on a risk assessment,” Connally said. “When it scores high, one of the things our officers do is we actually contact a resource counselor on the telephone… If the victim will take the phone call, we turn the phone over to the victim.”

Connally said they have also seen a high number of domestic violence reports in certain apartment complexes.

“The ones that are high with domestic violence calls we’ve actually gone door-to-door handing out resources as well, to try to get that information out,” Connally said.

Connally said domestic violence takes place across in all classes of society. However, he said reports may be more common in lower socioeconomic areas.

“When it comes to domestic assaults we really find it all over the scale and all age groups.  I think it might be under reported in some areas,” Connally said. “It may be reported more in lower socioeconomics just because of living conditions.  If you live in an apartment you have people right there that may call it in.  If you live in a more affluent neighborhood and you don’t have close neighbors then you may not have the neighbor to call in the dispute when they hear something going on or see something going on.”

For information on victim services provided by the St. Joseph YWCA CLICK HERE.

New patrol vehicles will be added to the St. Joseph Police Department’s fleet again next year.

Commander Mike Wilson said six Ford Tauruses and two Ford Explorers will likely be delivered in January.

“The purchase order just came through. Once that’s done, Anderson Ford will order them. So probably in January is when they will show up and we will start the process of getting them ready for spring or maybe early summer,” Wilson said.

The fleet has around 25 patrol vehicles. Wilson said every year vehicles are either auctioned off or removed from service to become parts vehicles.

“They’re just replacing some of our older vehicles. We have some of them that have 100 or 120-plus miles. When they’re driven every day those are pretty hard miles in the city,” Wilson said. “We drove 1.4 or 1.5 million miles on the whole fleet last year. It’s gone up.”

Wilson said once the vehicles come in they will have to be outfitted with gear and decals before they hit the road.

“We do a lot of that work in house,” Wilson said. “Other then putting the radios in; we do the camera installs, we put the back seat in, we do the decals, we get the lights. We have two in fleet maintenance and they are the ones that help get the cars prepared and set up.”

Wilson said they will not have any new vehicle models hitting the road next year that are not already in service.

“We do research and we try to buy the best vehicles we can buy for what’s budgeted,” Wilson said.

The department is currently working on getting an Explorer that was purchased last year into service. Wilson said it is still waiting on decals.

An event is planned for this weekend to remember Stormi Harbord and address issues surrounding domestic violence.

Family members are inviting the public to gather Saturday to celebrate Harbord’s life. Harbord was killed earlier this month in St. Joseph. The memorial gathering will take place at 1 p.m. at Evolution United Methodist Church located at 202 W. Hyde Park Ave. Terresa Parks, Harbord’s cousin said they plan to sing, share a potluck meal and release balloons. She said they are also trying to address the issue of domestic violence.

“We’re going to eat, we’re going to sing songs and we’re going to talk about some uncomfortable things,” Parks said. “We’re going to talk about some of Stormi’s favorite things and we’re going to talk about if you would like to help with her five children here are the ways you can help and then we’re going to do a balloon release. At that time if they want to stick around for awhile with the professionals and the ministers I will leave the doors open for awhile until the last one’s gone.”

Terrell Smith has been charged in Buchanan County with a felony of second-degree murder in connection with Harbord’s death. Parks said Smith and Harbord had been in a relationship prior to the shooting.

“I’m just really hoping that out of all of it when it’s time to leave this place, somebody if just by the loss of what Stormi went through can at least save one person,” Park said. “It’s just so hard to look at such a beautiful girl and think, ‘how did no one know?'”

Parks said the community is invited to attend Saturday’s event.  She is also inviting ministers and people who deal with domestic violence issues.  Parks said she hopes the gathering will bring the community together.

“The violence in our community has taken over,” Parks said. “We always say we want to fight back but nobody knows how to. So we just have to start taking things piece by piece and start picking stuff apart.”

For more information on the memorial gathering CLICK HERE.

A committee is launching efforts to encourage St. Joseph voters to approve a tax levy for the St. Joseph School District on the November ballot.

The Committee to Move St. Joseph Forward is launching its campaign efforts Wednesday, Oct. 11 at 4:30 p.m. at the Felix St. Square Concession Building. Co-Chair Kristi Arthur, said after the launch, the committee will then start making rounds in the St. Joseph community to promote a yes vote on Proposition 1.

“We’ll canvas every Saturday; the 14, 21, 28 and then November 4th,” Arthur said. “We need as many people to turn out to help with those events as possible.”

Arthur said the committee was formed after the St. Joseph School District Board of Education approved putting the $1.15 ta increase on the Nov. 7 ballot. That happened after the 1Vision Special Task Force recommended the tax levy.

“A community group of over 60 community members wanted to come up with a plan to move St. Joseph forward,” Arthur said. “It’s really important for us to lift up that a group of community members developed the plan and pushed the board to put it on the ballot.”

The committee said, if the proposition is approved by voters it would generate $11.5 million each year. According to the St. Joseph School District, approval of the proposal will allow the district to eliminate a projected budget deficit, retain teaching positions, maintain low class sizes, expand the use of technology for all students and support the current educational programs.

CLICK HERE to view a detailed plan on what the funds will be used for on the committee’s website. Arthur said community volunteers are also needed. Volunteer opportunities can be found HERE.

Anyone who wants to vote on the Nov. 7 ballot needs to be registered in Buchanan County by today (Oct. 11).  According to Buchanan County Clerk Mary Baack-Garvey her office will be open until 5 p.m.  Contact the clerk’s office for details regarding voter registration at 816-271-1412 or visit the website here.

A former St. Joseph man said he was taken away by the humanity he saw in people in Las Vegas following Sunday’s mass shooting.

John Cox said he and his wife Karen were visiting Las Vegas and staying at the MGM Grand, a hotel adjacent to Mandalay Bay, the hotel in which a shooter fired onto a country music festival taking place on the Strip. According to reports, at least 59 people have died and more than 500 injured.

Cox said he and his wife had gone to Mandalay Bay for dinner and were in their room at the MGM Grand which overlooked the festival when he heard what he thought was a drum solo.

“We were just getting ready for bed preparing for our flight back to Kansas City (for a business meeting) on Monday morning,” Cox said. “The music stopped and all of a sudden I heard these shots again. Another cycle of about 100 shots.  I looked at my wife and I said, ‘there’s something peculiar going on.  This sound isn’t coming from the band.'”

He said the sound continued on and off for more than 10 minutes.

Cox is an aviation consultant and now lives in Arizona. He said he graduated from Bishop LeBlond High School in St. Joseph and eventually went on to work as the Airport Manager at Rosecrans Memorial Airport from 1994 to 2007.  Cox said he and his wife stayed in their hotel room until they were sure there was no longer a threat and then they wanted to provide aid.  He said around 1:30 a.m. they ventured down to the lobby.

“Housekeeping had brought out a bunch of blankets to help comfort the people that had left the event and needed somewhere to go.  They needed shelter.  A lot of them had blood on them,” Cox said.

He said he was amazed by the humanity he saw in the people during the aftermath.

“People helping people that they didn’t even know and trying to comfort people,” Cox said. “I’ve never seen such an out pour of support for other people that they didn’t even know.”

Fire inspectors are continuing to look into a fire that destroyed a building in downtown St. Joseph Monday night.

Fire Inspector Robert Blizzard, with the St. Joseph Fire Department said crews arrived on scene in the area of N 13th and Church Streets around 11:37 p.m. Monday to find flames coming from the rear of the building.  Blizzard said the building had sat vacant and no utilities were hooked up at the time the fire started.   No injuries were reported.

“No one that I know of was inside the building at the time,” Blizzard said. “The fire is under investigation.”

He estimated the building a complete loss of around $35,000.  When crews left the scene around three hours after arriving, Blizzard said only the front and half of the north and south side walls of the building were left standing.

Roads in the area were closed off while crews were on scene.