A man was arrested Wednesday morning after a nine-hour standoff with law enforcement at a residence in the 800 block of North New York Avenue.
The call came into dispatch around 8:12 p.m. Tuesday.
“We got a call of a disturbance involving a firearm,” Sedalia Police Commander David Woolery explained. “Seems there were three residents in the home, two of them got into a physical altercation over a firearm.”
A shot was fired during the altercation and the person who was shot at managed to grab the firearm, run from the home, call police, and turn the gun over to them. Sedalia Police officers, Pettis County Sheriff’s Office deputies, and Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers surrounded the home and set up a perimeter.
“Police responded to deal with it and found the subject barricaded inside,” Woolery said. “A female who also lives in the home was being held against her will inside.”
When officers contacted her through the door, she said the subject had a bomb inside and not to come in.
On the chief’s advice, officers disengaged and set up safe locations for officers to begin negotiating. The Sedalia Fire Department and Pettis County Ambulance District were also staged nearby.
Officers negotiated with Charles L. Morris and the 46-year-old female being held against her will, and it was confirmed there was an incendiary device in the home, possibly set near the front door.
SPD called in the Missouri State Highway Patrol SWAT team for assistance and, while waiting for their response, continued negotiating until around 2:30 a.m., when Morris appeared to pass out, according to the victim.
Negotiators helped the victim understand how to escape, and MSHP SWAT escorted her away from the front door. SPD deployed a drone in coordination with devices used by the MSHP Bomb Squad to determine where the incendiary device and suspect were located. SWAT entered the residence and located Morris in a bedroom and secured him. The bomb squad entered the residence and safely disposed of the incendiary device.
Moore was taken to Bothwell Regional Health Center for evaluation and then transported to the Pettis County Jail.
“It was about a nine-hour ordeal,” Woolery said, “that involved SPD officers, the Sheriff's Department had deputies, the State Highway Patrol had personnel there as well as the Fire Department was on standby and Pettis County Ambulance District was also there on standby. It was a lot of patience, and you never really know if the information is valid about them having the bomb or not. The chief made the right call, they fell back and negotiated. Luckily the hostage didn't get hurt and we got her out.”
Before the incident, Morris had two active arrest warrants, a Pettis County warrant for statutory sodomy and two counts of third-degree child molestation and a Pettis County warrant for non-support.
Additional charges have been requested and sent to the prosecutor: two counts of first-degree domestic assault, possession of certain weapons in a crime, first-degree kidnapping, and unlawful use of a weapon.
