ONE OFFICER HEADS TO ST. LOUIS, OTHER HOME

Both Cape Girardeau police officers shot during a drug search Saturday night should leave the hospital today, but Cpl. Keith May will go home while Sgt. Brad Moore will head to St. Louis for further evaluation.

May and Moore were shot at the Super 8 Motel at 2011 N. Kingshighway while investigating a tip from the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force. May was shot in his abdomen by a .380 caliber handgun; Moore was hit in his left shoulder.

The bullet that struck May passed through his body and was recovered, but Moore still has the slug in his shoulder.

"He has a lot of pain," said Naamon Eaker, Moore's father-in-law. "All of the inside of the bone is mushy."

Surgery postponed

An initial decision for surgery on Moore was postponed after a pre-operation X-ray determined the position of the slug could cause complications, Eaker said.

Moore should travel by ambulance today to St. Louis University Hospital so specialists can examine his shoulder.

"It's going to be a team effort with several specialists," Eaker said.

May's recovery has come more quickly. If he is not released from Southeast Missouri Hospital today, which is likely, he should go home within a couple of days, Lt. Carl Kinnison said.

It is not always in a patient's best interest to remove a bullet, even if it's in his brain, said Dr. Gordon Eller, an orthopedic surgeon with Orthopedic Associates in Cape Girardeau.

"If it's in soft tissue, removal is oftentimes optional," Eller said. "Even if it's in the brain, you could cause more harm to surrounding tissue by operating."

But when a slug puts pressure on a nerve or has the possibility of moving close to vital organs, surgery is advised, he said. A bullet might remain in one location within a person's body for years before any dangerous movement occurs.

"Another reason to remove it is if it's necessary for evidence," Eller said.

Eaker, who was a Cape Girardeau patrolman when two officers were last caught in a shootout in 1961, said he remembers that event clearly.

He had traded shifts that day with Donald Crittendon, the last Cape Girardeau officer to die on duty.

"There was a lot of attention we received at that time, but this shooting seems to be bigger," Eaker said. "People from Arkansas, Kentucky and Illinois are all calling asking how they can help."