A Poplar Bluff man is being held on a $1 million cash bond after he was charged Thursday with shooting a detective who was among the officers attempting to arrest him on a federal warrant for violating his supervised release.
James Odell Johnson Jr., 28, of the 700 block of North 11th Street was charged with the Class A felony of first-degree assault, the unclassified felony of armed criminal action and the Class E felony of resisting arrest by Butler County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Bill Gresham.
Johnson is accused of attempting to cause serious physical injury to Poplar Bluff Police Detective Corey Mitchell by shooting him.
Mitchell was hit in an arm by one of the multiple shots allegedly fired by Johnson, who then barricaded himself inside a Kinzer Street apartment for about 1 1/2 hours.
After ongoing negotiations, Johnson surrendered and was taken into custody.
The shooting and standoff occurred as officers with the U.S. Marshals Service and Poplar Bluff Police Department were serving a felony arrest warrant at an apartment at 624 Kinzer St., according to Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Scott Stoelting's probable-cause statement.
"Officers knocked on the front door of the apartment and identified themselves," Stoelting wrote. "A white female opened the door and spoke to a deputy marshal."
The deputy marshal, Stoelting said, told the woman they were looking for Johnson and believed he was in the apartment.
Johnson, Stoelting said, was wanted on a federal warrant for violating his supervised release.
In July 2015, Johnson, according to earlier reports, pleaded guilty to the felony of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
At that time, Johnson was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison to be followed by a three-year period of supervised release.
After his release from prison, Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Sorrell said, Johnson violated the conditions of his release, and it was revoked.
At that point, Sorrell said, Johnson was sentenced to another six months of imprisonment.
After serving that sentence, Sorrell said, Johnson again was placed on supervised release.
Sorrell said Johnson again allegedly violated the conditions of his release and a warrant was issued for his arrest on Feb. 23.
Authorities reportedly had been searching for Johnson since that time.
According to Stoelting, the woman, who identified herself as the apartment's tenant, told the deputy marshal Johnson had been renting a bedroom in her apartment.
"She further stated she believed him to be in the room because the bedroom door was closed," Stoelting said. "She granted consent for the officers to come into her apartment to look for Johnson."
Stoelting said the officers went to the closed bedroom door, knocked and announced their presence.
"One Poplar Bluff police officer, who was stationed outside the bedroom window, saw the suspect open the curtain and look out of the window," Stoelting said. "This officer advised the offices inside the residence of what he saw."
At that point, Stoelting said, the officers continued to announce their identity as the police.
"One of the deputy marshals opened the door, and it didn't open all the way," Stoelting explained. "Another deputy marshal, who was holding a bullet-proof shield, pushed the bedroom door to make entry."
Johnson, Stoelting said, then allegedly began firing at the officers and immediately struck Mitchell in the arm.
"Officers returned fire and took a position of cover," Stoelting said. "The suspect, along with his girlfriend, barricaded himself in the room and refused to come out."
Numerous officers with the police department, highway patrol and Butler County Sheriff's Department subsequently responded and took up defensive positions around the building, as well as across the street.
Police Chief Danny Whiteley, Stoelting said, also arrived and was able to talk Johnson into surrendering himself.
As officers remained on the scene Thursday morning, Mitchell was taken to a Poplar Bluff hospital for treatment.
Mitchell underwent what police Lt. Josh Stewart described as "local surgery there in the ER."
Doctors, he said, used a "local anesthetic and removed the projectile" which was recovered for evidentuary purposes.
The bullet "struck just above his wrist (and) traveled up his arm maybe six to eight inches," Stewart explained. "The projectile was sitting basically just under the skin."
Mitchell, Stewart said, was released by noon.
From what doctors "can tell" the bullet didn't do any significant damage, but "a couple of inches either way it could have been a lot worse," Stewart said.
As Mitchell was being treated, and with Johnson in custody, officers secured the apartment as a search warrant was applied for in order to process the scene, Stewart said earlier.
Stoelting said he and an FBI agent interviewed Johnson at the Butler County jail.
"Johnson admitted to the shooting, but he denied knowing it was the police," Stoelting said. "Johnson said he was the only person inside the room who fired a shot."
Stoelting said Johnson further admitted to being the "owner and possessor" of the two firearms found inside the bedroom.
"One gun was a 9mm semiautomatic pistol, which was fired at officers," Stoelting said. "Another gun that was found was a .380-(caliber) semiautomatic pistol, with a defaced serial number.
"Johnson admitted that those guns were his, and he also knew he was prohibited from owning guns."
Johnson, Stoelting said, reported the serial number already was defaced when he got the pistol.
"After debriefing with the officers attempting to serve the warrant, it was discovered that a U.S. Marshal Task Force officer was shot in his bullet-proof vest," said Stoelting, who indicated that round was recovered as evidence.
"The deputy marshal who was holding the bullet-proof shield also discovered that his shield was struck by a round fired by Johnson," Stoelting said.
Johnson, who remains in the Butler County jail, is to appear at 9 a.m. Monday before Associate Circuit Judge John Bloodworth for arraignment on his charges.
In addition to his new charges, Johnson also was wanted on two failure to appear warrants for non-support.