State briefs 2/8/2016

Five hurt when porch collapses

ST. LOUIS -- A second-floor porch in St. Louis collapsed, injuring five people, two seriously. Fire Department Capt. Gregg Favre said the accident occurred Saturday evening during a Mardi Gras celebration at a building in the Soulard neighborhood. Favre said witnesses told firefighters the porch suddenly pulled away from the building wall and fell. Favre said no one was trapped under heavy debris, but firefighters pulled away timbers to help the victims. He said they treated five people and sent two to a hospital for serious injuries.

Officer injured when hit by car

KIRKWOOD, Mo. -- A St. Louis-area police officer has been hospitalized after being hit by a car. Rock Hill city administrator Jennifer Yackley said the officer was stable at a hospital, suffering from a head injury after being hit by a car earlier Sunday. She said the officer was investigating a report of a suspicious vehicle when a different car hit him in the street and left the scene. Yackley said no one has been charged.

Lawmaker drops restraining order

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A Missouri lawmaker said he's pleased a colleague dropped a restraining order against him but said the man was trying to hurt his reputation. Rep. Courtney Allen Curtis confirmed Friday he dropped the restraining order against Rep. Michael Butler. Curtis and Butler are St. Louis-area Democrats. Curtis said Butler swung at him Jan. 19 outside a union reception over a dispute on a right-to-work bill. Butler said in an email Saturday he's pleased "at the outcome of this legal matter" but disappointed in Curtis and others who helped with what he called "a political attempt to harm" his reputation. Curtis was the only Democrat to vote in September in favor of right-to-work legislation that would have banned mandatory union fees. Curtis said the restraining order wasn't political.

Man gets probation for school lockdown

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A Jefferson City man has been placed on unsupervised probation after he pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a 2014 lockdown at central Missouri campus. Aaron Burns was put on two years of unsupervised probation after he pleaded guilty in Cole County to misdemeanor third-degree assault. He had been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful use of a weapon stemming from a November 2014 incident at Lincoln University in Jefferson City. Court documents said witnesses told authorities Burns was on the campus, wielding a firearm, in November 2014, leading to a lockdown.

Boy killed in apartment fire

RAYTOWN, Mo. -- An early-morning fire in a Kansas City-area apartment has killed a child and injured a woman and another child. Fire officials said the child who died in the blaze Sunday at the Raytown apartment building was 5 years old. A woman and an 18-month-old were injured seriously in the blaze. Raytown Deputy Fire Chief Mike Hunley said at one point during the fire, some firefighters became trapped by the flames and needed to be rescued. They were not injured.

-- From wire reports