Feb. 20--FARMINGTON -- A Farmington man was killed and a sheriff's deputy was wounded in a gunfight early Monday in the parking lot of a drug store, police say.
The unidentified suspect, a 32-year-old man from Farmington, was dead at the scene, at Washington and Karsch streets.
Farmington police say a St. Francois County sheriff's deputy suffered minor injuries after being shot in the leg. He was being treated at a local hospital.
Witnesses reported hearing about a dozen shots in the gunbattle.
The Missouri Highway Patrol has been called in to investigate the shooting.
It all began about midnight Sunday when two bail bondsmen went looking for the 32-year-old man who had recently skipped a court date in a drug possession case. They went to his apartment, calling police as a backup.
He ran from his apartment and a shot was fired. Who fired the shot was not immediately clear Monday.
That set off a search for the suspect. About an hour later, police got help from a cell phone company, which told officers that the suspect's cell phone was detected in the area of East Karsch Boulevard and Washington Street, also known as Highway 32.
They found the suspect and confronted him. He pointed a gun at officers, police say, and refused their demands to drop the weapon. Police say that's when police and the man exchanged gunfire, wounding the deputy and killing the suspect.
Neither the suspect nor the deputy have been identified.
Copyright 2012 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
