Charges filed in shooting of Poplar Bluff officer

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. � 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 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 felony first-degree assault, felony armed criminal action and felony resisting arrest.

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 multiple shots allegedly fired by Johnson, who then barricaded himself inside a Kinzer Street apartment for about 1 1/2 hours before surrendering.

The shooting and standoff occurred after 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.

The deputy marshal, Stoelting said, told a woman who answered the apartment door 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.

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 and she believed he was in the room. She allowed the officers to come into the 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 officers inside the residence of what he saw.�

�One of the deputy marshals opened the door, and it didn�t open all the way,� Stoelting said. �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, Stoelting said, and Johnson barricaded himself and his girlfriend in the room and refused to come out.

Officers with the police department, highway patrol and Butler County Sheriff�s Department responded to the scene.

Poplar Bluff police chief Danny Whiteley, Stoelting said, also arrived and was able to talk Johnson into surrendering himself.

Mitchell was taken to a Poplar Bluff hospital for treatment.

The bullet �struck just above [Mitchell�s] wrist (and) traveled up his arm maybe six to eight inches,� police Lt. Josh Stewart said.

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.

Johnson was interviewed by Stoelting and an FBI agent 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.

�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,� Stoelting said.

Johnson, who remains in the Butler County Jail, is to appear at 9 a.m. today for arraignment on his charges.

In addition to his new charges, Johnson also was wanted on two failure-to-appear warrants for non-support.