Two vehicles struck by suspected air gun fire Friday night

Authorities investigated reports of two vehicles being shot in less than an hour while each was traveling on Butler County roads Friday night.

The shots were believed to have been fired by an air rifle or pellet gun, and no suspects have been found. No injuries were reported.

At about 8:25 p.m., Butler County Deputy Dakota Loggains was sent to an area on U.S. 60 East near the Marble Hill Cemetery overpass regarding shots fired. Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers also responded.

Loggains, according to his report, contacted an Alton tractor-trailer operator, who reported he was westbound on Highway 60, coming up on the Marble Hill Cemetery overpass, when he saw “what appeared to be a dark-skinned male subject, possibly in his teens or early 20s … turn to face his vehicle and put his hands out in front of him, as if he were holding a gun.”

The operator, Loggains said, then reported he heard what he believed to shots fired, which struck the cab of his truck.

“(He) advised one struck the windshield on the passenger side, cracking the windshield,” Loggains said. “The other two were believed to have struck the top of the cab of the semi.”

Loggains said the driver also reported seeing a “white van travel on the overpass at a high rate of speed after the incident,” but he was unsure if the events were related.

Troopers, Loggains said, responded to Marble Hill Road and searched the overpass area for any shell casings. None reportedly were found.

Loggains said he subsequently was called to another report of vehicle being fired at on Highway 67 South at about 9:10 p.m.

When Loggains arrived, he said, trooper(s) were out with the occupants of a 2018 Chevrolet Traverse just south of the Highway PP exit.

The SUV’s driver, a Poplar Bluff woman, reported she and her husband were southbound on U.S. 67, and as they passed the Oak Grove exit, “they pulled into the left turning lane due to vehicles merging into traffic,” Loggains said.

Among the vehicles entering the highway, Loggains said, was what the driver believed to be a black, four-door Jeep Cherokee.

“(She) stated the vehicle sped past them and then slowed down, getting side by side them,” Loggains said. “(She) stated that she heard a loud pop as if something had struck the passenger side of her vehicle.”

At that point, the suspect vehicle reportedly slowed down.

“(She) stated she then heard another loud pop and her back glass busted on her” SUV, Loggains said.

The other vehicle reportedly pulled off onto Highway PP as the Poplar Bluff woman pulled her SUV onto the side of the road, Loggains said.

Troopers, he said, searched the back of SUV for possible bullet fragments, but none were found.

Loggains said a “small dent” was found on the SUV’s rear passenger side.

“The indentation was consistent with being from a firearm and again most likely an air rifle or pellet gun of some kind,” Loggains said.