Cape Girardeau police still searching for wanted man after false alarm

Police spent nearly an hour in a standoff Friday at a Cape Girardeau residence, guns drawn, believing that fugitive Zatrun R. Twiggs may have been hiding inside, only to find a vacant apartment.

Officers received a tip that someone had seen Twiggs enter the six-unit apartment building at 224 Independence St., and about 12 Cape Girardeau officers as well as a few officers from other agencies responded immediately, surrounding the brick building.

Apartment resident Isaac Johnson had just returned home from getting groceries and gone into his residence when police cars pulled up outside on Independence Street, he said.

"All I heard was 'get out of the house with your hands up.' That's what I did," Johnson said.

Assistant chief Roger Fields said police armed themselves with patrol rifles and shotguns at the ready and gave repeated verbal commands for Twiggs to come outside. They were using "beanbag" rounds of ammunition designed to incapacitate someone without killing or causing fatal wounds, he said.

Given the choice between gassing the vacant ground-floor apartment where Twiggs was assumed to be and sending in a police canine, they opted to send in the dog, Fields said.

When they finally entered the unit after the canine, they discovered there was no one inside, Fields said.

Johnson said he knew there were several vacant units in the building, but that he hadn't seen any sign of Twiggs.

He said he is familiar with Twiggs' family, but doesn't know him personally.

"Last time I've seen him, he was a little bitty thing," Johnson said.

Police have been searching for Twiggs since Aug. 28, when he led Cape Girardeau officers on a high-speed chase down Interstate 55, tucked in the back seat of a car driven by a woman police are also

trying to find.

Twiggs was originally wanted on felony warrants for drug distribution and a parole violation, and the unidentified suspect stowed him away in the back of her car while she drove at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour, veering onto the shoulder of the highway as she passed other drivers.

The couple managed to escape to Scott City, where Twiggs ran into the residence of an elderly couple and made the man drive him to Chaffee, Mo., according to Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter.

The car was found abandoned in Rockview, Mo., near Chaffee. Charges of home invasion, kidnapping and armed criminal action were filed in Scott County against Twiggs.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

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