Briefly 8/30/18

Lightning strike kills Maryville fisherman

MARYVILLE, Mo. -- Authorities said lightning bolt struck and killed a northwest Missouri man as he was fishing.

Maryville Public Safety said authorities found 35-year-old Ryen Browning, of Maryville, dead around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday when they responded to a call at the City Reservoir. Browning was struck while fishing from the bank of the reservoir.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Browning's death marks the 17th U.S. lightning fatality this year and the second in Missouri. The other death in Missouri occurred in July when a 23-year-old man was struck while on a roof in Kansas City.

St. Louis Co. parlland to be sold to cemetery

CLAYTON, Mo. -- St. Louis County is preparing to sell parkland for the expansion of the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, which is expected to run out of space in the next few years.

The County Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to advance a bill that would authorize the sale of 33.6 acres of the Sylvan Springs Park to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for $2.4 million, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Final approval is expected next week.

The cemetery will run out of burial plots between 2021 and 2027, officials said. The extra acreage would give the cemetery an additional 20 years of capacity, according to a VA environmental assessment.

St. Louis County Parks Director Gary Bess said funds from the land sale would be reinvested into the rest of the park.

Two charged in Columbia homicide

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Two people have been charged in a deadly Columbia shooting authorities said stemmed from a drug deal that went bad.

Forty-one-year-old Daria Joyce Lynn Littleton, of Columbia, and 27-year-old Anthony William Neill, of St. Louis, are charged with second-degree murder in the death of 31-year-old Randall King Jr. Littleton was arrested Tuesday night, but Neill hasn't yet been apprehended. Littleton's bond is set at $1 million.

-- From wire reports