Two suspects have been arrested and charged in connection with a shooting on Interstate 44 in rural Missouri in which a bullet struck a truck driver in the head, a spokesman for the state’s Highway Patrol told Land Line.
The incident had sparked considerable concern in the trucking community. A number of other vehicles, including two trucks, had windows suddenly shatter while driving through a 10-mile stretch of I-44 that included the site of the shooting, sparking speculation on whether a sniper was involved. Sources now say it is possible the incidents are linked.
According to a patrol statement, Jeffrey Hubbard, 19, of Sullivan, MO, and Paul Murta, 18, of Leasburg, MO, were taken into custody Monday, Nov. 1. Hubbard is charged with second-degree assault, a felony, and shooting across a highway. Murta is charged only with shooting across a highway, a misdemeanor.
At 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 21, a woman driving a tractor-trailer – identified by media outlets as Amy Holder, 34, of Paris Crossing, IN – was headed west on I-44 near Bourbon, MO, about 75 miles west of St. Louis.
Something – medical personnel later determined it was a bullet – shattered the driver’s side window of the truck and hit Holder’s head as her husband, Travis, rested in the sleeper berth. Patrol spokesman Sgt. Dan Crain said the bullet struck the vehicle – and Holder – just west of Bourbon on the interstate, between that town and Leasburg.
Holder called 9-1-1, and the Bourbon Police Department responded. Luckily, her injuries were not serious, and she was released a short time later. However, police are taking the incident very seriously.
The Bourbon Police quickly asked the Highway Patrol to investigate the incident and any possible connection to the series of incidents in that area. Although numbers vary depending on who’s talking, some media reports say as many as nine vehicles have lost windows along the 10-mile stretch of I-44 near Bourbon in rural Crawford County since February, at least two of them were tractor-trailers.
It is very possible that the incidents are linked, Crain said.
“One of the suspects stated that he on several occasions had fired a .22-caliber rifle across the interstate,” Crain said.
The two men are not charged in other cases where glass was broken in vehicles in the Bourbon area.
“This is the one case where we had the physical evidence and everything … to make an arrest,” Crain said. “We have the glass breakage, we have the general area, and you might surmise probably that there very well could be a correlation there, quite frankly. But we just don’t have enough evidence to actually – at this time, at this point – to charge in those other cases.”
At press time, both suspects were in the Crawford County Jail awaiting trial, held in lieu of $100,000 cash-only bail each. Officials have not yet set a date for their first court appearance.
Crain said the arrests were the result of a “high-priority” investigation by the Highway Patrol and other agencies.
In addition to the Bourbon Police and the Highway Patrol, the investigation included officers from Crawford County Sheriff’s Department, the Cuba, MO, Police and the Sullivan, MO, Police. The Highway Patrol headed the effort.
–By Mark H. Reddig, associate editor
mark_reddig@landlinemag.com
