Officers recall lethal clash one year ago

SUPER 8 SHOOTING

By Sam Blackwell ~ Southeast Missourian

One year after being shot in the stomach during a drug bust at a Cape Girardeau motel, Cpl. Keith May is heading to Colorado for a vacation with his wife, Tammy, and children, Ryan and Kate. He may do some skiing.

One year after the shooting, Sgt. Bradley Moore still has a .380-caliber bullet lodged between two arteries in his neck and fights relentless pain in his shattered shoulder. With use of his left arm limited, he undergoes physical therapy four days a week, underwent another surgery on the shoulder last week and is struggling to get back in blue.

"From my perspective, I have no intention of not coming back," Moore says. "My desire all along has been to go back, and I should be able to. They're saving my spot for me as patrol sergeant."

The Cape Girardeau Police Department officers went to the Super 8 Motel on North Kingshighway last Feb. 10, a Saturday night, on a tip from the SEMO Drug Task Force about a suspected meth lab.

After the officers entered a motel room to search for evidence, 20-year-old Matthew Marsh grabbed a gun hidden under a pillow and shot each one once. They fired 14 times in return, killing Marsh.

Another occupant of the room, 26-year-old Jenna McDaniel, lay in a fetal position during the shooting. Three months later, she pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance. The seven-year sentence was suspended, and McDaniel was given five years' probation.

Justifiable shooting

The jury at a coroner's inquest ruled that the officers acted justifiably in shooting Marsh. No changes in police procedure have resulted, Capt. Carl Kinnison says.

"There was an assessment of the whole process. The officers pretty much did everything right," Kinnison said. "There wasn't much more they could have done to prevent it from happening."

Moore can't ever recall being free from pain since Feb. 10 last year. He was an outdoorsman who hunted and fished and split his own firewood. He can do none of those now. "There's not a whole lot I can do," he says.

The bullet is in such a precarious position that Moore doesn't know if it will be removed. "I haven't found anybody yet who would want to tackle the job," he said.

Moore's shoulder will never return to normal. Shoulder joint replacement may be necessary.

The healing process hasn't been easy for May, either, though he did return to work 10 weeks after the shooting. The muscles didn't grow back from his first abdominal surgery to patch his colon and remove part of his small intestine. Another surgery was required last October. He went back to work in December and feels much better, but expected to take about a year to heal completely.

Moore and his wife, Kim, and daughters, Jerica and Carissa, have received many letters from students, active police officers, firemen and retired police officers. "It has been a tremendous outpouring," he said.

A Back the Blue campaign raised money for expenses workers' compensation does not cover.

"I can't put into words how much thanks and appreciation I have for how much support I have received," he said. "It really has helped."

May says much the same.

Moore has been on the Cape Girardeau police force 25 years. He and May were members of the same platoon. Ironically, May has taken over Moore's job as acting patrol sergeant. That doesn't feel quite right to him.

Different approach

The shooting has changed his approach to police work.

"It has made me a little more cautious and leery. I worry about the guys when they're out," May says. "But you kind of have to expect something like that to happen as part of the job."

Moore and May remain close.

"Anytime you go through something traumatic like that ... you have something in common nobody else is going to have," May says. "It's like these guys in the military who have been through combat."

Moore can find just one thing of value in Feb. 10.

"I survived," he said. "That's the best thing that happened to me."

Six months after the Feb. 10 shoot-out, while meeting with her probation officer at the Gibson Center, a drug treatment facility, McDaniel was arrested on outstanding warrants for violating her probation.

The officer who made the arrest found a vial of methamphetamine on her. A further search turned up a meth lab in the back seat of her Honda. She was convicted of manufacturing methamphetamine, possession of meth and possession of drug paraphernalia.

McDaniel now is serving her original seven-year sentence.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182