Man arrested on hindering charge in Missouri officer killing

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A man charged with hindering prosecution in the killing of a western Missouri police officer told an informant he dropped the suspected gunman off at a nearby marina after the shooting, according to court records.

Jacob Johnson, 27, of Clinton, Missouri, was arrested Tuesday on the hindering charge. He remained jailed Wednesday on a $25,000 cash bond. Online court records don't list an attorney for him.

The charge stems from the Aug. 6 killing of 39-year-old Clinton police officer Gary Michael Jr., who was shot after he stopped a car for a traffic violation. Investigators said Ian McCarthy, who is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting, drove away and crashed a few blocks from the scene in Clinton, a community of about 9,000 residents about 75 miles southeast of Kansas City.

McCarthy fled on foot and was captured Aug. 8 after a manhunt. He has entered a not-guilty plea.

Michael was able to return fire. A Missouri State Highway Patrol sergeant wrote in a probable-cause statement that Johnson told an informant Aug. 7 that McCarthy had been shot in the "butt" and was no longer in town. The statement said Johnson also told the person "the less we know, the better."

When authorities interviewed Johnson on Aug. 8, he denied seeing or having any contact with McCarthy after Michael was killed and denied McCarthy owned a firearm, the probable-cause statement said.

But another informant told authorities Johnson was surprised Aug. 9 when told McCarthy had been arrested in Urich, west of Clinton. McCarthy, who is from Clinton, actually was captured while walking along a state highway near a marina in Bucksaw, just east of Clinton.

According to that informant, Johnson said, "How did he walk from Bucksaw, that's not where I dropped him off?" Another person, whose name was marked out in the court document, loaned Johnson a vehicle to take McCarthy to the marina, according to the probable-cause statement.

The sergeant wrote in the statement Johnson was interviewed again Aug. 9 and admitted he saw McCarthy with an AR-15 rifle about two months earlier.

A third person, 35-year-old William Grant Noble, also of Clinton, is charged with supplying the weapon used to kill Michael.

The patrol, which announced Johnson's arrest in a tweet Tuesday, said in the posting the investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

Pertinent address:

Clinton, Mo.