Cape woman, 20, shot in back

A 20-year-old Cape Girar-deau woman was rushed to the emergency room late Monday after being shot once in her lower back as she walked past 433 S. Ellis St.

Police were still searching for a 17-year-old man suspected of shooting Erica Hempstead and for any evidence he may have left at the scene.

Witnesses told police the man was known to have several guns and could possibly be hiding out with relatives in a nearby neighborhood. They also gave a description of a possible car driven by the young man as a maroon 1995 Ford Thunderbird with a dent.

Hempstead lived in the neighborhood, said family members who arrived on the scene shortly after the shooting. They believe the young man intended to shoot her, in particular, and that he knew her, they said.

"She was just walking by," said her father, Shelton Hempstead.

While Erica Hempstead was in stable condition, her father said he was told that the bullet was lodged in a kidney and that doctors were going to perform a CAT scan that night to locate it and devise the best method for removing it.

"With the good Lord's help, she'll be all right," he said. "I'm trying to hold it together."

After Hempstead was taken away to Southeast Missouri Hospital, police photographed the bloodied part of the walkway where paramedics prepped her. They also searched the block looking for bullet casings.

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160