An Andrew County man was arrested after a fight with his sister over a hamburger. 

According to court documents, 42-year-old Robert Donald Williams faces felony charges for unlawful use of a weapon (while intoxicated) and resisting arrest. He also faces charges for third degree domestic assault and second degree property damage. 

According to court documents, around 6 p.m. Sunday, Investigator Grant Gillett with the Andrew County Sheriff’s Department was dispatched to a 911 call on County Road 423 in Savannah. Gillett said while on the way, he was advised a female was screaming for help and people were fighting. He requested assistance from the Savannah Police Department. 

“Officer McMillen and I arrived on scene where Helen Everett was running towards the roadway trying to wave us down,” Gillett said. “As I was exiting my patrol vehicle Everett screamed, ‘Where have you been he could have killed us.’ Everett stated that her son, Robert, who was standing in the front yard had assaulted her and her daughter.” 

Gillett said when he approached Robert Williams and asked him to come speak with him, Williams took a fighting stance. After repeated efforts to get Williams to speak with him, asking him to place his hands behind his back and warning him if he refused, he would be tased, Williams started to advance towards Gillett. Gillett deployed the taser and Williams then placed his hands behind his back and the officers were able to place him under arrest. 

According to Gillett, Williams stated he fought with his sister over her asking him about a hamburger being eaten. Williams also said he did shoot a gun and when asked if he had been drinking, admitted to having four shots of whiskey that day. 

It was later discovered that during the day, Robert and his sister, Roberta, were verbally arguing and it later turned into a physical altercation. Williams broke a wooden door and frame to get into his sister’s bedroom and held her down on the bed and was choking her. 

“At this time, Everett attempted to stop Williams by striking him in the head several times with a metal cheese grater,” Gillett said. “Everett then called 911 for help (and) Williams went into another room of the house to get a gun.” 

According to Gillett, Roberta took off running when Williams got the gun and he chased her and fired two shots. Roberta was able to outrun her brother and take safety inside the residence. A neighbor helped keep Williams away from Everett until officers arrived on scene. 

A breath sample at the Andrew County Sheriff’s Department at 7:12 p.m., showed Williams had a .130 blood alcohol level. 

Bond is set at $20,000.

A Savannah man accused of shooting his girlfriend on New Year’s Day at the Amazonia Ball Park faces additional charges including possession of a controlled substance in jail. 

As previously reported, Jay Patrick Bowman is charged with the shooting death of Stephanie Bradberry of Savannah. Bowman is charged with felonies for first-degree murder or in the alternative second-degree murder, armed criminal action, first degree domestic assault, unlawful use of a weapon, and misdemeanors for possession of marijuana and unlawful use of drug paraphernalia. 

According to court documents, the additional charges stem from an incident in February, when a search was conducted of the Work Release Pod of the Andrew County Jail. During the search, items later identified as Tramadol, a controlled substance, were found. The pills were located in Bowman’s property in the Pod. 

“After talking with Bowman and being advised of his Miranda Rights, he agreed to write a statement on the incident,” Caleb Worley, Deputy Sheriff with the Andrew County Sheriff’s Office said. “Bowman stated Inmate Reys brought in medication for Bowman’s back and he brought 17 pills. When the pills were found there was 14. Bowman stated he took three.” 

Charges have been filed for attempt to deliver or possess a controlled substance in a private or county jail and possession of a controlled substance.

The St. Joseph Animal Shelter saw around a dozen adoptions this week, helping free up space in its packed facility.

We first learned Tuesday, from Jenna Keyes, Animal Control and Rescue Humane Educator, that the 45 to 50 kennel shelter was at capacity with 38 dogs in the main kennel and 15 cats in the small animal room. She said shelter policy requires at least seven kennels to be open at all times.  So in an effort to prevent the need to euthanize animals, the Friends of the Animal Shelter offered half-price adoptions deals through Wednesday.

After we ran the story on St. Joseph Post, it was shared more than 800 times on Facebook.  Since then, five dogs and seven cats have been adopted. Keyes said two dogs were also transferred to an animal rescue facility in Kansas City, so the count at the shelter is now 27 dogs and 11 cats.

She said because of the recent adoptions there are enough open kennels now in the facility so euthanasia will not have to happen at this time.  However, Keyes said adopters are always needed.

To learn more about adopting a pet from the St. Joseph Animal Shelter or volunteering CLICK HERE.

 

Half-price adoptions are being offered in an effort to find homes for pets at the St. Joseph Animal Shelter which is at capacity. 

Animal Shelter Humane Educator Jenna Keyes said they usually work with local rescue organizations in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska but those places are also full at this time. 

The shelter has 45 to 50 available kennels and, as of Tuesday morning, the shelter had 38 dogs in the main kennel and 14 dogs in the Puppies for Parole program. According to Keyes, they are required to have seven open kennels at all times. In the small animal room, there are 15 cats in the 22 cage room.

Keyes said every year at this time, a lot more animals tend to come into the shelter due to a lot of strays, owner relinquishes and Puppy Parole graduates coming back to await adoption and they approach or reach capacity. 

“Around Fourth of July until the start of school is usually kind of our scramble, trying our hardest to get these dogs out and get them adopted or into rescue and cats as well, getting them adopted,” Keyes said. “When it turns to fall, gets a little cooler, animals stop traveling as much, people aren’t outside as much so we don’t see as many of those animals coming in, but that tends to be the yearly flow: busy in the summer and pretty slow in the winter.” 

The Friends of the Animal Shelter saw the need and extended a half-price adoption deal through Wednesday to help get animals adopted out instead of having to consider euthanizing adoptable animals. 

“Luckily, we haven’t gotten to a point where we had to decide to euthanize that day,” Keyes said. “The past couple of weeks have been rough just because everywhere has been in the same situation as we are and they’ve been very full as well. But thankfully it looks like this week we might get a few dogs into rescue organizations as well as all the great adoptions from this half price event so we’re definitely getting in a better position.” 

The Friends of the Animal Shelter is offering half-price adoptions through Wednesday at the shelter, Petco and Petsmart. For more information, go to the Friends of the Animal Shelter Facebook page or call the shelter at (816) 271-4877.

The St. Joseph Animal Shelter is looking for volunteers for a makeover project. 

GreaterGood’s Rescue Rebuild will be in St. Joseph next month to work on some improvement to the local shelter. 

Shelter Humane Educator Jenna Keyes said the main goal of the makeover, sponsored by Nestle Purina, is to improve the cat housing. 

“Our main purpose is to find more ways to create more cat housing and create good environments for the dogs as well, and just brighten up the shelter and do a little bit of a makeover,” Keyes said. 

The work will take place from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. September 10th through the 18 at the shelter. Keyes said they need a lot of volunteers to have a successful makeover. 

“There will be all different types of volunteer positions where you can fit in and use your skills to help out the shelter,” Keyes said. “Any volunteers we can get out here that are willing to help and really make a big difference for the animals here at the shelter, we greatly appreciate that support.”

Anyone interested in volunteering for any part of the project needs to register online and fill out a survey indicating areas of interest and time availability. For more information, go to the Friends of the Animal Shelter Facebook page or fill out the survey here.  

A group of school counselors and social workers from St. Joseph schools gathered Wednesday morning for a suicide prevention training. 

St. Joseph School District Coordinator of Counseling Kim Hill said a different professional development topic is covered every year at the back to school meeting. 

“This came to the forefront of our agenda because of some recent suicides and violence in our community, so we thought it would be very good,” Hill said. “We had people in the community reach out to us and offer to come talk and we felt that it would be good timing to have them come and share with us. There’s also some new legislation, it’s bullying legislation, but within it are some legislative guidelines for schools in terms of suicide prevention and awareness, so it just seemed like a good fit for us to proactively focus on this at the beginning of the year.” 

Speakers included, Assistant Professor at Northwest Missouri State University Dr. Jackie Kibler and Missouri Western State University President Dr. Robert Vartabedian. 

Kibler spoke about suicide prevention and how to help students cope with pain. 

“The suicide research shows that the majority of people who survive suicide attempts identify that they don’t want to die, they just want the pain that they’re feeling to stop,” Kibler said. “So we talked about teaching kids that pain is a normal part of life and then helping them with coping strategies to deal with that pain.” 

Kibler said, in St. Joseph, there’s been a higher suicide rate than the national average over the last year and the national suicide rate has gone up for children age 10-14. She also said suicide is the second leading cause of death for ages 10-25. 

“The district has some great things in place for prevention,” Kibler said. “One of the things that I tried to bring in working with the school district is taking more of a wellness approach to suicide prevention. I really emphasized self-care to the counselors, taking care of themselves and being able to model that for the kids and their colleagues, because this group in particular gives of themselves a great deal and so trying to take care of themselves is a piece of that puzzle, I think.” 

Kibler said some of her advice for suicide prevention in and outside of the school setting is to pursue real connections with people. 

“Kids today and adults today, we’re big with social media, we’re big with phones and it adds to our lives but it also takes away from our lives,” Kibler said. “There’s some researchers that say it provides a lot of connection, but it also provides a lot of loneliness. So I think that’s happening particularly with kids, also with adults, and so connecting in real ways, putting the phones away, which is hard, it’s not going to be natural for them to want to take that away and interact with you. But they need that interaction, they need that connection, so that’s what I would encourage: to have real connection.”