Dog helps to corner Cape man for police

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- After eluding capture for a week, it took the threat of fighting off a police dog to motivate a Cape Girardeau shooting suspect to cooperate with police.

Zatron R. Twiggs, 17, was arrested early Tuesday morning at a house in Carbondale. Twiggs is charged in connection with a shooting that took place Jan. 20 on the 400 block of South Ellis Street in Cape Girardeau.

Carbondale police found him hiding inside the attic of a home at 610 N. Bridge St. after being tipped off to the location by Sikeston, Mo., police. When 10 of the department's officers arrived, a woman answering the door was cooperative and gave them permission to search inside, Sgt. Mike Osifcin said.

"She told us he was hiding in the attic, and we talked to him and told him if he didn't come down we would send a canine up to the attic," Osifcin said. "He decided to come out of the attic and was arrested without incident."

Twenty-year-old Erica Hempstead was shot once in her lower back and required surgery to remove the bullet from her right kidney. She and her sisters were arguing with Twiggs before the incident.

Twiggs was not carrying a gun when he was arrested and no weapon was found inside the house, Osifcin said. As of late Tuesday, Twiggs remained in the Jackson County Jail in Murphysboro, Ill., awaiting extradition.

Twiggs was almost caught Sunday night in Sikeston, after officers learned he was hiding in a residence. But when they went to arrest him, another person ran outside, apparently as a distraction, and Twiggs got away through a back door.

Afterward, Sikeston police traced a telephone call made by Twiggs from the home in Carbondale and contacted Carbondale police.

Cape Girardeau police appreciate the other agencies' combined efforts to capture Twiggs, said Sgt. Rick Schmidt of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

"A lot of the credit goes to Sikeston for passing along information on Twiggs to Carbondale that led to the capture of a dangerous person," Schmidt said. "It's sometimes difficult to get two law enforcement agencies to work well together, but they did a great job, especially considering it was between two states."

mwells@semissourian.com

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