2 Dead in Missouri Motel Shootout

2 Dead in Missouri Motel Shootout
A piece of police tape is seen in a photo. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
The Associated Press
3/17/2022
Updated:
3/17/2022

A police officer and a gunman died following a shootout at a motel in eastern Missouri that left another officer wounded.

Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesperson Dallas Thompson says Bonne Terre officers Lane Burns and Garrett Worley were sent to a reported disturbance at a Motel 6 in Bonne Terre about 12:30 a.m. Thursday.

Thompson says as they approached the room where the disturbance was reported, a man came out and fired at the officers with a handgun, and both officers were shot.

Thompson says the officers returned fire, killing the man, later identified by Thompson as 21-year-old James Emery, of St. Louis.

Thompson says Burns later died at a hospital. Worley was flown to a St. Louis trauma center with a gunshot wound to the leg.