Trucker charged in shooting on I-44 on Franklin County

[But Kamala is the gun czar]

FRANKLIN COUNTY, Mo. — A truck driver has been charged after police
say he shot another driver Tuesday on Interstate 44 in Franklin
County.

Vernon Wayne Crutcher of Winder, Georgia, was charged Wednesday with
one count each of first-degree assault and armed criminal action.

A probable cause statement filed by the Missouri State Highway
Patrol detailed the chain of events that led up to the shooting.

According to documents, MSHP was called to the shooting shortly
before noon on I-44, west of Route H in Sullivan. Crutcher had been
arrested at the scene by Sullivan police and the victim was taken to
a St. Louis hospital with a gunshot to his abdomen.

Two witnesses told authorities that Crutcher and the victim parked
their tractor-trailers on the shoulder of eastbound I-44, with the
victim's truck parked in front of Crutcher's truck. Witnesses saw
Crutcher get out and approach the other truck on the passenger side,
and the two began speaking to each other in the grass right-of-way.
They then saw Crutcher pull out a handgun and shoot the other man,
documents said.

As the man was running away, witnesses said Crutcher shot at him a
second time before they both returned to their trucks.

Police spoke to the victim at the hospital. He said that prior to
the pair pulling over, they had been arguing over CB radio. He said
Crutcher was driving aggressively near him, so he pulled over, and
Crutcher pulled over too.

He told police he saw Crutcher walking up to his truck and he got
out to meet Crutcher. When the victim tried to speak to him,
Crutcher pulled out a gun, "unexpectedly" pointed it at him and shot
him from about 6 feet away, he said.

The man said the altercation had only been verbal until that point.
After he was shot, the man ran back to the driver's side of his
truck and watched Crutcher return to his own truck. He said he then
walked up to Crutcher's truck in an attempt to take photos with his
phone, but Crutcher got out with his gun again and the victim
returned to his truck.

The two both remained in their own trucks until police arrived.

Crutcher said during a police interview that he had been in a
roadway dispute before pulling over but hadn't spoken to the other
man over CB radio.

Crutcher claimed he shot in self-defense after the other man "bowed
up" during the argument on the side of the highway and swung a knife
at him, documents said. He claimed two superficial cuts on the
outside of his left hand, "approximately one inch long and right
next to each other, with minimal blood exposed," were defense
wounds.

Surveillance video from a local business corroborated the victim's
statements and showed the two were never close enough to each other
to engage in a physical altercation.

"After confronting Crutcher with evidence and witness accounts that
contradicted his account of the incident, he became upset and
requested legal representation," the probable cause statement said.

Crutcher was being held without bond at the Franklin County
Sheriff's Office. A docket hearing was scheduled for Thursday.

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime/franklin-county-interstate-
44-shooting-truck-drivers/63-e5187ef1-e2c1-4994-ad80-3af16b1bc2d4