No one hurt in standoff Tuesday night

No one was hurt, but a standoff just off Highway 77 between Chaffee, Missouri, and Oran, Missouri, prompted authorities to shut down the highway and a nearby railroad Tuesday night until a suspect was taken into custody, Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter said.

"It was a verbal that had kind of escalated into a gun being brought into the situation, and that's when we got called," Walter said Wednesday.

Kenneth Eugene Cummins Sr., 53, of Chaffee faces charges of first-degree domestic assault, armed criminal action and unlawful use of drug paraphernalia in connection with the confrontation.

A victim told deputies Cummins punched a family member in the face, then pointed a gun at the same person and pulled the trigger, but the weapon did not fire, so Cummins pulled the slide back to chamber a live round, at which point the victim and two other family members fled, according to a news release the Scott County Sheriff's Department issued Wednesday afternoon.

When two family members returned without the victim to retrieve some belongings from the house a short time later, Cummins fired a gun, Walter said.

"We believe that that was just trying to scare them off," he said.

Family members left the property and called the sheriff's department at 9:07 p.m.

Cummins then "holed up" in the house with some long rifles, Walter said.

"He refused to talk to us on the phone," he said.

Cummins talked with family members on the telephone, and his brother came to the scene and convinced him to surrender shortly before midnight, Walter said.

"Nobody was hurt. It came to a resolution peacefully," he said.

According to the release, a search of the house -- conducted with the help of a K-9 unit from the Cape Girardeau Police Department -- turned up weapons placed around the house, including a loaded AR-15 semi-automatic rifle found near the front door with four additional loaded magazines.

The house sits back from the road, so Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department officers brought a mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle, or MRAP, to Nunn Road, which is just north of the house, in case officers needed to use it for cover so they could approach safely, Walter said.

"Had it not been for the brother, we probably would have had to use that [MRAP] to get up close to the house just to be able to communicate with the guy," he said. "... Without any type of communication, we would have never resolved this."

Walter said officers were aware of what he described as "some issues" with Cummins. He did not elaborate on what those issues were, but said the situation likely had been brewing for some time.

"I don't know that this just happened overnight," he said. "... They could have had some issues -- some family issues -- before. ... As far as we know, it never got this violent, this out of hand before."

Drugs or alcohol could have been a factor in the standoff, Walter said.

"I believe that's a possibility, yes," he said. "... That's something that we will have to wait to get results from the lab."

According to the news release Wednesday afternoon, officers searching the house after the standoff found a metal pipe with suspected marijuana residue on it.

Walter praised the cooperation from other assisting agencies, including the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Chaffee Police Department, Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department and BNSF Railway.

"We had real good cooperation from the railroad. They immediately stopped their trains," Walter said.

An ambulance and Air Evac also were on standby in case they were needed, he said.

"I can't say enough good things about the cooperation between all those agencies," Walter said.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

Chaffee, MO