(Update) – A 27-year-old St. Joseph woman is in critical condition at Mosaic Life Care after she was found in a vehicle with gunshot wounds Saturday night.

St. Joseph Sgt. Dan Sweiger said the woman was found in a vehicle in the 900 block of Ridenbaugh. The woman’s name has not been released.

Sgt. Wayne Byrom said a person of interest was taken into custody in the case on Sunday.  Charges had not been filed as of Monday morning.

St. Joseph, MO – The largest annual career fair in Northwest Missouri will be held this week.

Job seekers are encouraged to attend the St. Joseph Career and Resource Fair to talk with hiring businesses, educational providers and social service resources. This year, more than 70 employers will attend in addition to educational providers and social service resources.

This year marks the 13th anniversary for the Career Fair.

The St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce is a part of the St. Joseph Employment Coalition and both are behind the planning and organizing of the event.

The St. Joseph Employment Coalition was formed about 13 years ago with one goal in-mind: to provide job opportunities to the St. Joseph community and surrounding area. The concept was to do something positive that could stimulate economic and employment development in St. Joseph. A partnership was formed between several social service agencies, the City of St. Joseph, the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce and local media outlets to develop a team that would organize an annual citywide job fair. As the Coalition has no source of income or funding, the group had to rely solely on the support of sponsors.

The career fair takes place from 2 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 18, at the Civic Arena.

Job seekers are encouraged to dress for success by wearing business or business casual attire to the event.

For more information, contact Mary Brown, (816) 364-4102 or email [email protected] or Jennifer Whitson, [email protected] or (816) 390-8083.

The Brown County Sheriff’s Office is warning area residents about a scam circulating involving computer viruses and people claiming to represent the “Geek Squad.”

Sheriff John Merchant said in the past week residents have reported three to four similar cases of people telling residents their computers are sending out viruses to everyone.

“These scammers are trying to get information from your computers so please do not allow anyone to access your computer if you do not know them personally,” Merchant said. “One person stated that they were told their computer could be fixed for $5 and wanted bank card information to proceed. Should this information had been given out—these people could clean out your bank accounts.”

Merchant said it’s just one of many scams he’s warning people about right now. Another scam that is going around is callers contacting county residents representing themselves as officials from Medicare/Medicaid.

“They are requesting verification of these identification numbers and are stating that they have been compromised. Again, this is a scam to obtain your information. Should there be a problem with your accounts, you would be notified by mail or informed that there was a problem, you would never be asked to provide your number over the phone,” Merchant said.

The newest scam Merchant said his office is dealing with involves fake subpoenas.

“Within the last couple of days people are getting notices over their computer. They’re getting email notices saying they’re going to be sued if they don’t provide x-amount of dollars,” Merchant said.

He reminds people never to give out personal information and when in doubt contact your local law enforcement.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – Crews working with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad plan to close Route U (Alabama Street) in St. Joseph next week.

Route U will close for routine maintenance of the railroad crossing located between U.S. Route 59 and Stockyards Expressway. The road will close at approximately 7 a.m. Monday, April 17 and will remain closed until approximately 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 19. During the closure, motorists will need to use an alternate route.

As fishing returns to Krug Park officials are urging visitors to take a different approach when feeding ducks and geese.

In a news release earlier this week, the City of St. Joseph began asking people visiting Krug not to throw food from the railing. Officials said the goal it to try to train the water fowl not to try to nab the bait on hooks cast into the pond.

“We’re trying to pick some areas that we think some younger kids might fish more, and trying to discourage feeding the ducks and the geese in those areas just so we don’t have any hook accidents,” said Jeff Atkins, Assistant Parks Dir.

Atkins said they city is still encouraging people to come out to feed the water fowl, but not necessarily with bread.

“What we are trying to do is to maybe encourage people to feed the ducks and geese something that might be a little more healthy to them,” Atkins said. “The vegetables would be better for them then the bread would be by far.”

Instead of bread the city suggested, peas, unsweetened instant oats, birdseed, small torn pieces of lettuce, duck pellets or canned, frozen or fresh corn.

“Feeding the bird these things helps them stay healthy and feeding them right at the waters edge, will hopefully help them learn not to chase after the hooks that anglers will be casting into the water,” said Julie Noel, City Special Event and Communications Coordinator.

Fish have been stocked at Krug Park and Corby Pond.  Atkins said it’s the first time people have been able to fish at Krug since 1969.  It was originally halted due to trash left behind by fishers.  Atkins is urging people to try to help keep the park clean.

(Update 3 p.m.) – Four people are dead and three others are injured after a crash Friday morning on Riverside near the Cook intersection.

Capt. Jeff Wilson with the St. Joseph Police Department said a truck involved in the crash was reported stolen.  The suspected driver of the stolen truck is in police custody and has been hospitalized for serious injuries.  Four other occupants have been pronounced deceased.  A sixth person was transported by life-flight to KU Med Center for treatment of life-threatening injuries.

Wilson said the driver of the other vehicle, a blue dodge truck was a middle-aged man and he is being treated for moderate injuries.

The crash shut down Riverside from Gene Field to Cook from shortly before 11 a.m. It was reopened around 3 p.m.

Police are continuing to investigate and are currently notifying next of kin.

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(11 a.m.) – Authorities said there are possibly two fatalities and multiple injuries involved in a traffic crash at North Riverside Road and Cook Road. The incident appears to involve a crash between two trucks at that location.

As of 12:20 p.m. officers were still on scene and at the hospital investigating.

The St. Joseph Police Department urged people to avoid the intersection in an alert issued shortly before 11 a.m. Friday.

Police said the advisory is in place until further notice.

It’s been a week to recognize those taking emergency calls.

Every year during the second week of April, telecommunications personnel in the public safety community are honored for their work. Those who work in the Communications Center in Buchanan County were also recognized this week.  Sheriff Bill Puett said the operators are a vital part to emergency response.

“The telecommunicators do such a great job of calming folks and getting them the resources that they need,” Puett said. “Whether it’s medical services, or law enforcement services or fire services, they do it all.”

Genny Norton is a day-shift supervisor in the Communications Center.  She said in March they answered 4,600 911 calls.

“We are the primary 911 center for our county.  We take all emergency calls and non-emergency calls for police, fire and sheriff.  We assess what they need and get them going in the right direction,” Norton said.

24 operators and management personnel work in the communications center which is staffed around the clock, seven days a week. Norton said they deal with a wide variety of calls.

“It can range from having a missing child, to even the other day we had a man that was missing with dementia. It could be that a house is on fire or that somebody has fallen.  It could be that their car is broken into or their car was stolen.  They could be calling because they’re complaining because a car has been parked on the street too long,” Norton said. “It could be that they just don’t know who else to call and so they’ll call us.”

Norton said the recognition for comm center employees has been uplifting this week.

“It’s very heartwarming.  It makes you really feel appreciated.  A lot of times, you know we’re not seen by the public. A lot of times when people call us it’s on the worst day of their life,” Norton said. “It’s been nice this week that everything has been very uplifting.”

The 2017 National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week runs until Saturday.  For more information on the week, CLICK HERE.

Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill answered questions from the audience during a town hall Thursday at Missouri Western State University.

Over 150 people filled Western’s Leah Spratt Hall to hear from the democratic senator.  Questions asked ranged from the healthcare debate, proposed budget cuts impacting local communities, LGBT rights, the Keystone Pipeline and McCaskill’s vote against Neil Gorsuch for the U.S. Supreme Court.  McCaskill said she is holding town halls all over the state in mostly areas that voted strongly against her party in the presidential election.

“I’m going to places that are not big democratic counties.  Every place I’m stopping, President Trump won by a wide margin, but that doesn’t mean I can’t show up.  If they want to chew on me, if they want to criticize me, if they want conflict, they’re entitled to that.  I work for them,” McCaskill said. “The people in the state who supported him the most are the people who are getting the short end of the stick, and I want to fight for them.”

The Senator said she know’s she’s the underdog going into the 2018 election.

“I’m used to being the underdog, I’m comfortable being the underdog.  I’ll work as hard as I know how to relate to and communicate with Missourians,” McCaskill said. “I am the last state-wide democrat with the exception of Nichole Galloway who is the auditor.”

McCaskill said she plans to hold many more town halls all over the state.

On the same day Mosaic Life Care settled a medical malpractice claim for $3.85 million, a jury verdict against the hospital was formally entered in another malpractice case. The jury’s wrongful death judgment, adjusted down by the judge, totaled more than $2.5 million.

Circuit Judge Randall Jackson formally entered the judgment on Wednesday in the case of Lois Sullwold of St Joseph.

Last month, the panel awarded five million dollars in past and future “non-economic” damages (pain and suffering). The law limits the amount of such damages to $350,000 for actions that occurred before August of 2015, when the cap was raised to $700,000 by the General Assembly.

“It’s unfortunate that the public doesn’t know that. Even though the jury heard the evidence, and decided that there was negligence involved, the law doesn’t allow such high awards for non-economic damages,” said Bill Bird, the attorney for the estate of Lois Sullwold.

Ms Sullwold, a woman in her 70s, died after problems arose around an IV placed in the crook of her elbow that later become infected. The infections caused what Bird described as 18 months of misery, in which she was hospitalized for all but about 30 days.

“It is a shame, and I’d like to see the evidence that such damage caps work,” Bird said. “I think the jury was trying to send a message. ‘Don’t treat patients this way; train your nurses.’ ”

Evidence showed that Ms Sullwold began bleeding from the site of the IV, but that nurses merely cleaned up the site, and reinserted the IV at the same location. Bird says standard medical practice calls for IVs not to be placed in locations such as the wrist or the elbow, because they can and often do move.

The jury awarded punitive damages of one million dollars in the trial. They also awarded $1.2 million dollars for past economic damages.  Judge Jackson entered $350,000 for non-economic damages.

The case went to trial on March 14, 2017. The panel returned a verdict on March 20. Judge Jackson entered the formal judgment Wednesday.